Frank Bruni has a good column...

...in the Times this morning, "Hillary's Prickly Apologia," in which he says:

But the real problem with the news conference wasn’t anything specific that she said or didn’t say, any particular tone of voice or set of her shoulders that she aced or bungled.

It was what kept coming to mind as she stood before the cameras once again, under fire once again, aggrieved once again by Americans’ refusal to see and simply trust how well intentioned and virtuous and good for the country she is:

Yesterday.

It was all so very yesterday.

And elections are about tomorrow. Yes, that’s a cliché, but it’s also unassailable political truth.

And Clinton’s challenge is to persuade an electorate that has known her since the Mesozoic era and trudged wearily with her through so much political melodrama that to vote for her is to turn the page, to embrace a new chapter, to move forward.

And Bruni's right -- to a point. Hillary's Hillary and the Clintons are the Clintons and none of that is going to change. If she's elected -- as I expect she will be -- the Clinton White House, Part II, will be full of scandals and drama and everything else one would expect from the nation's most famous and controversial power couple. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

But I don't think any of that will prevent Mrs. Clinton from winning in 2016. Even if Jeb Bush isn't the nominee (and all signs point to his being the GOP standard-bearer), Hillary will win because it will be -- once again -- a referendum on President Obama. And, as much as Republicans can't believe it, the nation will choose him over any of the GOP's candidates. Why? Because they've done it twice before and the economy may be even better next time than last.

Just as George H. W. Bush was elected as a proxy for Reagan's "third" term, so will Hillary be elected to serve Obama's "third" term. (Just keep those good jobs numbers coming in.)