The soul of Clinton's quip

January 6, 2008 | 9:19 pm

Even with only about 24 hours left until the start of primary voting in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton is still making her argument for experience, specifically her experience, as a presidential candidate. Criticizing President Bush is always a surefire applause line in Democratic gatherings, but the senator's point today was that U.S. foreign policy should not be based on personal relationships.

It was at the last stop of her day, in Hampton, N.H., where The Times' Peter Nicholas heard Clinton unleash a quip that painted the president as gullible and Russian President Vladimir Putin as, well, something else:

"This is the president," Clinton said, "that looked into the soul of Putin. I could have told him he's a KGB agent. By definition he doesn't have a soul." The crowd laughed uproariously and then applauded. (Remember this line in case Clinton is elected president and ever meets with Putin.)

Actually, what Bush said was a little different, but what politician wants to spoil a good applause line? The incident Clinton referred to occurred in Slovenia after the first Bush-Putin meeting on June 16, 2001, at a joint news conference. Bush was asked: "Did President Putin ease your concern at all about the spread of nuclear technologies by Russia, and is this a man that Americans can trust?"

According to the official White House transcript, Bush replied: "I will answer the question. I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue."

-- Andrew Malcolm