Timing Is Everything For Hillary Clinton

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Timing is Everything

Hillary Clinton recycled a nine-month-old endorsement from an influential African-American leader earlier this week — at the height of acrimony over race between her campaign and that of Barack Obama.

The Hill newspaper reports Clinton announced the endorsement of California NAACP President Alice Huffman Monday. But an entry on Clinton's campaign blog from last April lists Huffman as a supporter. And Huffman herself confirms that she endorsed Clinton last year. She says it was the Clinton campaign's decision to make the announcement this week.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to our request for a comment.

Family Feud

The battle for the Democratic nomination has caused some tensions in the Congressional Black Caucus. The Politico reports that while a majority of caucus members support Obama — more than one third are behind either Clinton or John Edwards. And now that Obama has won Iowa and is polling well — some of his supporters say Clinton backers are political opportunists who did not believe in the electability of a black candidate.

Illinois Democrat Danny Davis says — "They are all professional politicians, and the first thing professional politicians learn is to try to be where they think it is more politically advantageous to be... I think there are people rethinking and second-guessing their early endorsement because they simply didn't know the momentum that would begin to develop [behind Obama]."

And Missouri's William Lacy Clay says — "Some of our colleagues misread the tea leaves of politics and thought it was a slam-dunk for Hillary, and it's not."

Who Said It?

You might be surprised at which presidential candidate made the following statement recently about former president Ronald Reagan — "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it ... he tapped into what people were already feeling, which was, 'we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.'"

The speaker — was Barack Obama. He made the comments to the editorial board of the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper a few days ago.

Mystery Donor

And the campaign of Republican Mike Huckabee is looking for a woman who gave the candidate a very unique contribution recently — a gold ring. A Michigan TV station reports the woman slipped the ring to Huckabee during a campaign event in Birch Run last Friday.

She reportedly told him she had no money and that the ring was her grandmother's family heirloom. A man who witnessed the exchange says Huckabee was dumbstruck.

Now his staff is trying to find the woman to see if she wants to have the ring back. If not, they want to see how much the ring is worth so she can be credited for the contribution — and make sure it complies with the legal donation limit.

— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.