As the Iraq controversy built, Bush aides increasingly focused on Clinton and the contrast between her reclusiveness and Bush’s openness. “It continues to be interesting, the extent to which every single verb, noun, adverb, and adjective that he utters is psychoanalyzed,” one Bush aide said of the former Florida governor. “There’s clearly a different standard from Hillary Clinton. It’s remarkable how little she has engaged with the public and the press since she became a candidate.”

“Yes, he is held to a different standard,” the aide continued. “And that’s okay. But it’s stunning that she is allowed to evade the press and evade the public in the way that she is being allowed.”

One example. At the same time Bush was going through the Iraq questioning, Annie Karni, a Politico reporter covering Hillary Clinton, tweeted a photo of a man in a suit — apparently someone associated with Clinton — standing in front of a drape concealing some sort of hallway. Karni’s tweet said: “My view of @HillaryClinton entering her finance meeting in Red Hook.” Clinton was behind that drape somewhere, but the press — much less the public — could forget about having any sort of interaction with her.

It is literally impossible to imagine Clinton — besieged by questions about the Clinton Foundation, her secret email system, trade, and other hot issues — making herself available to voters and the press the way Bush has.