And I don't doubt that Hillary will be throwing lamps at her husband again, this time for being off-message as she attacks the Bush record in the course of her presidential run.

In an interview for a high-profile magazine cover story just hitting newsstands, President Clinton offers praise for several foreign policy initiatives undertaken by President Bush.

Speaking with Condé Nast Traveler, Mr. Clinton lauds Mr. Bush mostly for decisions that involved overruling hard-liners in his administration.

"He has done three things that I think the world generally approved of: restoring cooperation with the Latin American countries, making a diplomatic agreement with North Korea instead of continuing to have a frigid standoff, and sending Americans to the conference to discuss the future of Iraq with the Iranians and the Syrians," Mr. Clinton said. "Those are, all three, things that signify we're trying to do better in the world."

The former president said more inflexible positions the Bush administration took earlier on those and other issues were the understandable product of the trauma America incurred on September 11, 2001. "It took us a couple of years to regain our bearings, and I think we have now," he said. "I think that we're getting our balance back."

Mr. Clinton also gave Mr. Bush credit for pressing for an end to the genocide in Darfur. "I think the fact that he's pushing really, really hard through the diplomatic channels on Darfur is a plus. People see that we're pushing harder than some of the other countries are to try to get an acceptable UN force in there that will save more lives," he said.

Clinton's rhetoric is so moderate that it can only further alienate the mouth-frothing leftoids that claim to be the new center of Democrat politics. Not only does he praise Bush, but he also praises Wal-Mart at a time that his wife is having to distance herself from the company. I don't see this as being any help to the Senator .