The Drudge Report got an early look at Strategery, the new book by Bill Sammon, senior White House correspondent for the Washington Examiner, and it contains several revealing opinions about Hillary from none other than White House strategist Karl Rove and President Bush.
Rove is quoted on the-record, and Sammon was granted an exclusive interview with Bush. Rove, who has rarely been proved wrong on anything political over the last decade or so, thinks that Sen. Clinton will draw on her extensive experience to prepare her run. “She has seen what the job requires,” mused Rove. “And she has been through six gubernatorial campaigns, two presidential campaigns, and then two senatorial campaigns in a big, industrial state. So she will be a formidable campaigner. She’ll be sure-footed.”
Rove also admits that “She is the dominant player on their side of the slate,” and that “Anybody who thinks that she’s not going to be the candidate is kidding themselves.” In fact, he pretty much declared her the winner of the 2008 Democratic primary, telling Sammon that the “hard-driving” Hillary will easily beat potential party rivals like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who are merely “preening for the vice presidential slot.”
However, Rove believes that her weaknesses, such as “her personal philosophy and her brittleness about her” will make it difficult for her to win the presidency. According to Merriam-Webster, "brittleness" in this context means "lacking warmth, depth, or generosity of spirit," or, for lack of a better word - she's mean.
Says Rove: “The question people will ask is, do we want to have her as president? And the answer to that will be determined in part by how she conducts herself. But it will also be settled in part by who the Republican nominee is and how he or she conducts themselves.”
Bush’s analysis of Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy is a bit less detailed than Rove’s, but he also predicts big things for Hillary, at least during the primary. “She is a smart person, and obviously has got a lot of experience,” the president said. “It is helpful, to a certain extent, to have seen the presidency and presidential campaigns firsthand.”
Bush also said that “I think Hillary Clinton will be a formidable candidate. And I don’t know the inner workings of the Democrat primary that much, but she will be a formidable candidate in the Democrat primary, is what I meant.”
According to Drudge, the president discussed potential GOP candidates that would conceivably run against Hillary in 2008, such as Secretary of State Condi Rice and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, but the president evidently did not talk about how his "new brother," President Clinton, will help Hillary in the presidential campaign.
