It doesn’t take much to surprise the media anymore.
Hillary chats with an old admirer, Bernadette Chirac. (Times Online)
Despite the similarities between the two former first ladies, Reuters today was “surprised” with the latest foreign endorsement for Hillary:
Clinton wins surprise support from former French first lady
U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won surprise backing from the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday, together with a pledge to join her on the campaign trail.
The Chiracs’ political affiliations are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Clintons’, but the former French first lady said she had always thought Democratic candidate Clinton had the makings of a U.S. president.
“She’s a woman who is not liked by everybody. But she’s strong and she has convictions,” Bernadette Chirac, well-known for a forceful character of her own, told the weekly Le Figaro magazine.
But… Was this really a surprise?
Here is what the former first lady of France said back in July 2003:
France’s first lady expressed her support for a presidential run by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying that such a candidacy would be an inspiration to women worldwide.
Bernadette Chirac, the wife of French President Jacques Chirac, made the comments Wednesday on a prime-time TV newscast featuring an interview with the New York Democrat.
In October 2003 Bernadette Chirac said this:
Bernadette Chirac, wife of French President Jacques Chirac, says she hopes Hillary Clinton will one day be elected US president because she would become a trailblazer for women across the world.
Clinton “does not say it, but I think she is aiming for the White House,” Chirac said in an interview with Thursday’s edition of the French magazine Nouvel Observateur.
“And I want her to succeed because the day that she is elected president of the United States she will become a trailblazer for all women of the world,” she said.
Again… Was this news today really a surprise?
Fausta has a Chirac corruption roundup.
