Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called the president’s speech “nothing new’’ and “largely a defense of his Iraq policy.’’
President Bush delivered a speech that, topically, might have been delivered by Clinton herself, with a sweeping new health-care reform proposal and a call for a new energy policy.
The New York Democrat, whose 1993 health-care reform effort was dismantled by Republicans, said Bush’s plan would drain resources from public hospitals and “decimate the safety net.’’
Clinton started her day by brushing aside suggestions that her family’s 1980s and 1990s scandals would scar her campaign, telling CBS’ Early Show : “I think the country’s turned a page on all of that. I certainly have. I live in the present, looking toward the future.’’
–Glenn Thrush