Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

I use that title a lot, don't I?

It's discouraging that BOTH the Republican and Democratic frontrunners are taking pages from the Bush playbook, thus adding fuel to the notion that a Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani president is not going to differ that much from what we see today.

Hillary may not be the fascistic, authoritarian crazy that Rudy is, but already she's showing signs of not wanting to deal with people who dare ask uncomfortable questions:

The Clinton campaign has admitted to planting questions in Iowa. They have confirmed that a campaign staffer approached a student to ask Sen. Clinton a question about global warming during a campaign stop at a biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa, on Nov. 6.

The story was first reported by Patrick Caldwell, a junior at Grinnell College and the features editor of The Scarlet and Black college newspaper. He reported that student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff was approached by the campaign to ask a question. She told the reporter that "they wanted a question from a college student." She also said that she "noted that staffers prompted Clinton to call on her and another who had been approached before the event, although Clinton used her discretion to select questions and called on people who had not been prepped beforehand. Some of the questions asked were confusing and clearly off-message."

Clinton Campaign spokesperson Mo Elleithee tells ABC News that "on this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton's energy plan at a forum. However, Sen. Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again."

The staffer still remains with the Clinton campaign and they would not reveal his or her name. The campaign did not comment on whether this is the only time they have planted questions among audience members.

Given that this president has approval ratings that vary between 24% and a sizzling 31%, why are the parties' frontrunners striving to be as much like him as possible?