Hillary Clinton: George W. Bush's BDF (Best Democratic Friend)

She voted for his war.

She's supported his war.

She's rattled her own saber at Iran.

Now she gives him credit for "making us safer":

In a televised debate on Sunday night, Mrs. Clinton, who has tried to minimize her differences with her rivals on commander-in-chief issues, bluntly disagreed with a main rival, former Senator John Edwards, who had just said that the administration’s so-called war on terror was little more than a slogan.

“I believe we are safer than we were,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We are not yet safe enough, and I have proposed over the last year a number of policies that I think we should be following.”

[snip]

Advisers and supporters of Mrs. Clinton said yesterday that she was not endorsing the Bush administration’s strategy against terrorism, but highlighting the improved efforts of Americans on the front lines to detect and deter terrorist activity since 9/11. They said that Mrs. Clinton also thought the war in Iraq had been a distraction from the fight against terrorism, but that, day to day, people are safer than they were.

“I think the vast majority of Democratic primary voters, and Americans, would agree with Senator Clinton,” said a campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson. “I think most Americans, for instance, would think that air travel is safer today than on Sept. 10.”

"Most Americans"? Have they conducted any polling on this, or is Wolfson just talking out of his ass the way Captain Codpiece's advisers do?

To the extent that Americans no longer believe, as they did prior to the 9/11 attacks, that the way to deal with a terrorist on board is to do what he says, her statement is true. But when you look at the way the FAA has been playing whack-a-mole with restrictions in response to every nutty plot at every phase seemingly starting with a guy having a dream, you have to wonder. Air cargo screening is still a pilot program. Not everyone who gets near a commercial airliner should be. And while peace activist nuns are being place on no-fly lists, questionable people are still getting through.

But the real point here is Hillary Clinton's eagerness to parrot the Republican talking points about Bush having made us safer, when no such thing has occurred. Perhaps it's her husband's friendship with the old man. Perhaps she too adheres to Bush's apocalyptic vision. Perhaps it's a perpetuation of the DLC mistake of believing that you can do business with Republicans these days. Whatever her reasoning, she makes herself less and less of an alternative to Republicans every day.