Bush says 2008 race wide open, Clinton ‘formidable’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush said on
Friday the race for the White House in 2008 was wide open and
called potential Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton
“formidable.”

“This is an unusual year because this is the first time
there hasn’t been a kind of natural successor in the party,”
Bush said in an interview with CBS News. His vice president,
Dick Cheney, has ruled out a run for the top job.

Told that Clinton, a former first lady and current New York
senator, seemed to be running pretty hard for the Democratic
nomination, Bush replied, “She’s formidable.”

The president said it was “hard to tell” who the leading
Republican candidates might be.

“The minute I start speculating, you’d make all kinds of
news with it, and it would interject me in the race. … Two
wide-open primaries with no sitting vice president running in
either primary, so this is — I can’t remember a time when it’s
been this open.”

Bush said the presidency had not changed his priorities and
he highly recommended the job.

“I will tell you, if given a chance to do it again, I would
have said, ‘You bet.’ It’s been a fantastic experience.”

His biggest disappointment?

“The bitterness in Washington, D.C. … the tone in
Washington.”