Opinion: Laura Bush sees no fair shake for Sarah Palin; but that’s tough and so’s she

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When Laura Welch and George W. Bush took their wedding vows, they exchanged another promise too. The new wife promised she would work out with her new husband and he promised she’d never have to make a political speech.

Neither one kept those promises.

In fact, the current first lady gave her first political speech during her honeymoon on the steps of a West Texas courthouse in her husband’s vain attempt to unseat an incumbent House Democrat.

Although many do not think of Laura Bush as a very political person, this fall is only the second presidential campaign in 28 years that she has not been out on the trail for her husband or father-in-law.

You can bet that’s fine with her. She’d rather be reading her third book this week anyway.

But last night Bush did tell Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren how much she likes another woman on the presidential campaign trail this year -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

‘I’m just crazy about Sarah Palin,’’ Bush says. ‘I like her very, very much. I loved watching her in the debate last week.... She’s a really tough Western woman...(and) I’m really thrilled to have the opportunity to vote for a Republican woman for vice president.’

Soon, Bush will be out of politics and back in the Crawford-area ranch house that she so carefully designed for their retirement days. But first she was asked if Palin was getting a fair shake:

‘No,’ she said. ‘I think she can take it though, for sure. There’s no doubt about it. But, you know, I guess they say, all is fair in love and war. And I guess politics is part of that.’

It’s not just being a woman that makes it tougher for Palin in the media, the first lady suggests, but also being a Republican woman. ‘My advice is just, be strong,’’ says Bush. ‘That this is what happens in politics and you’re really in the big leagues when you’re on the ticket, on the presidential ticket.’

Something Laura Bush will soon be done with -- for the moment anyway.

--Andrew Malcolm

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