New York Times: Hillary & The Bushes Take Page Out Of Republican Playbook
According to this Maureen Dowd column in the New York Times it appears that both George W. and Laura Bush are endorsing Hillary Clinton who has recently gone about 360 degrees again. First accusing Edwards of throwing mud (because criticism of Hillary Clinton isn't allowed, y'know) and then getting personal and mocking Obama (but that's different, y'know, in Hillary country, also known as George W. country, you're either with us or against us):
She went on some first lady jaunts and made a good speech at a U.N. women’s conference in Beijing. But she was certainly not, as her top Iowa supporter, former governor Tom Vilsack claimed yesterday on MSNBC, “the face of the administration in foreign affairs.”
...Obama’s one-liner [she wasn't Secretary of Treasury as far as anyone can remember] evoked something that rubs some people the wrong way about Hillary. Getting ahead through connections is common in life. But Hillary cloaks her nepotism in feminism.
“She hasn’t accomplished anything on her own since getting admitted to Yale Law,” wrote Joan Di Cola, a Boston lawyer, in a letter to The Wall Street Journal this week, adding: “She isn’t Dianne Feinstein, who spent years as mayor of San Francisco before becoming a senator, or Nancy Pelosi, who became Madam Speaker on the strength of her political abilities. All Hillary is, is Mrs. Clinton. She became a partner at the Rose Law Firm because of that, senator of New York because of that, and (heaven help us) she could become president because of that.”
And then the Bushes had this to say, taking a page of the Karl Rove playbook: start to talk of the candidate you most want getting the nomination as inevitable. Bush,
gave a plug to Hillary on ABC News last night, calling her a “formidable candidate,” even under pressure, who “understands the klieg lights.”
...Laura Bush also gave Hillary a sisterly — and dynastic — plug when she told the anchor that living in the White House and meeting people everywhere would be “very helpful” to a first lady trading up.