JOHN HINDERAKER THINKS THAT BARBARA BUSH SHOULDN’T HAVE SPOKEN AGAINST PALIN:

This is the kind of intramural spat that the liberal media love to play up. It serves their purposes to portray the Republican Party as divided between “establishment” or “country club” Republicans and Tea Party upstarts led by Governor Palin. . . . Sarah Palin can be a great asset for the Republican Party and the conservative movement, but only if the Democrats’ plan to use her to create a needless schism in the movement fails. Palin has generally been scrupulous about not criticizing specific Republicans, but occasionally falls into stereotyped attacks on unnamed “establishment” Republicans. Worse, in my view, are the anti-Palin Republicans, some of whom talk about her as though she were a vampire to be warded off with a clove of garlic. Palin is not my first choice as a Presidential nominee, but so what? The conservative movement is not, and cannot be, a one-person show. Conservatives of all stripes need to resist the liberal media’s effort to stir up intramural brawls in our ranks.

Yes, Barbara Bush did this on purpose — to lay the groundwork for Jeb running? — and it was either unwise or selfish, depending on what you think she was after.