This holiday weekend, Americans will be treated to an unprecedented Thanksgiving address from New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, whose televised message thanking the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan debuted on MSNBC Wednesday night.
"I want to thank all of our brave men and women who are serving our country," Mrs. Clinton says in the spot, in a performance designed to burnish her image as a future commander in chief.
"And I want to thank and honor the service of all of you who have been wounded during all of these conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere defending our country, fulfilling your mission and making us all very proud," the former lady says, in an Oval Office-like setting with the American flag visible over her shoulder.
After the camera pans across a montage of photos of servicemen and servicewomen, Mrs. Clinton concludes, "On this Thanksgiving, I personally want to extend the thanks for the work and the service that you give."
Three weeks ago the former first lady said President Bush has not shown enough appreciation for U.S. soldiers who have fought and died in the Middle East - going so far as to accuse the White House of trying to cover up U.S. war casualities.
During a widely watched address to Democrats in Iowa two weeks ago, Sen. Clinton described her Veterans Day visit to wounded soldiers at Washington, D.C's Walter Reed Army hospital.
She called Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq an "unfortunate policy that we are still paying a very big price for."
"And of course," she added, "it is mostly falling on the shoulders of the young men and women who serve in our military."
Still, despite her sharp criticism, Sen. Clinton denied once again on Tuesday that she has any intention of challenging Bush with her own 2004 presidential bid, telling a German magazine, "Perhaps I'll do it next time around."
Meanwhile, senior Clinton adviser Harold Ickes has taken over Democratic Party efforts to finesse campaign finance reform legislation in a bid to amass a $100 million campaign war chest for the party's eventual nominee.
Though the presidential bid of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is increasingly viewed by political experts as all but unstoppable, Ickes attacked Dean last week as a shoot-from-the-lip loose cannon whose comments about the Confederate flag should cost him the nomination.
If Dean should stumble before the convention next July, the pressure on Sen. Clinton to accept a draft could prove irresistible.
Clinton's Thanksgiving commercial comes as she embarks on a surprise visit to U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, a trip that takes place over the objections of at least one powerful member of the Senate Armed Services Committee on which she sits.
Appearing with Sen. Clinton before reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday, committee colleague Sen. Pat Roberts urged her "Don't do that," warning that Clinton's status as a former first lady makes the trip too dangerous.
According to an account in Newsday, Clinton quickly pulled Roberts aside and said, "Let's not talk about that right now."
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