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A pair of First Ladies opened this week's episode of "Saturday Night Live" with a Mother's Day Message to America.

Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton had big plans for the holiday, but spent most of their time sniping at and trying to one-up each other. For SNL, this was a bold political step in taking dual digs at two of the most popular national figures among its core audience.

"Tomorrow, Barack and the kids will give me breakfast in bed and then we'll go for a family run," Obama says. "I'm going to put my Blackberry on airplane mode and watch the 'Good Wife' on airplane mode," responds Clinton [Vanessa Bayer], while working in hints about an upcoming presidential run.

When Obama [Sasheer Zamata] says she was honored to give the gift of health care to 8 million Americans, Clinton added she tried it 16 years ago. Then Obama trumped her with "but we delivered." That's subject to debate, as well.

Clinton continued her pitch for the White House and swapped a few not-so-veiled shots with the current First Lady. "I was going around the world," she says. "But I guess it's more difficult to get a fat kid to eat an apple."

The two eventually remained pals.

What's next for Clinton? "I'm meeting Barbara Boxer to work out at Curves."

Charlize Theron returned to host after a 14-year hiatus.

The last time Theron hosted SNL, Hillary was First Lady and the 2000 presidential election was still days away.

Theron is featured in Seth MacFarlane's summer movie "A Million Ways To Die In The West" and showed her comedy chops in "Arrested Development" and her hilarious Funny or Die video from 2012 which included "Game of Therons."

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Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama Spar to Open SNL as Charlize Theron hosts

Mrs Clinton, who is certain to be called to testify, has already described the Benghazi episode as her "biggest regret" while in office, and conservatives will waste no opportunity to remind voters of a security debacle they say the White House deliberately tried to whitewash.

Then there was Boko Haram. Mrs Clinton's tweet drawing attention to Nigeria's kidnapped schoolgirls under the hashtag "#BringBackOurGirls" was initially hailed as a demonstration of her global influence, with Michelle Obama and other influential people joining a spontaneous campaign.

But conservatives were soon rushing to the television studios to point out that Mrs Clinton had repeatedly declined to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization while she was Secretary of State. Yet another attempt to question her record.

Despite Republican protestations to the contrary, none of these attacks are even close to killer blows. They might play well with the party's Hillary-hating base, but the Lewinsky scandal is old news, Benghazi has become a partisan hobbyhorse and the Boko Haram "scandal" was actually a decision justified at the time by a perfectly reasonable desire not to internationalise a regional terror outfit.

All the same, they do point to the bare-knuckle nature of the fight that lies ahead. If Mrs Clinton decides to run for president she cannot expect to rise above the fray as she did while serving as Secretary of State.

On occasion recently Mrs Clinton displays a distinctly lofty tone. When she came out in favour of same-sex unions after leaving the State Department's Foggy Bottom headquarters, she equated equality for gay marriages to her own experience of her daughter Chelsea's marriage, adding with regal condescension that "I wish every parent that same joy".

It is not a tone that works well on the stump, and, as she demonstrated when flying off the handle during earlier Benghazi hearings, and in her nasty primary fight with Mr Obama in 2008, Mrs Clinton's record in televised debates is shaky.

She may have no serious challenger for the Democratic nomination this time - polls put her 50 points clear of Joe Biden, the vice president and her nearest rival - but the presidential race will always be close given the structural divisions of modern American politics.

Try as she might to differentiate herself, Mrs Clinton will also be running as a "third term" president, and unless he lifts his rock-bottom approval ratings, Mr Obama will leave her none of the foundation of popularity that Ronald Reagan bequeathed to George H W Bush, or Bill Clinton to Al Gore (who then squandered it).

If Republicans can find a fresh, plausible candidate ruthlessly focused on improving middle class lives rather than the Culture Wars, then Mrs Clinton will have to struggle to explain to voters why they should embrace what Republicans will tout as "four more years" (of failure).

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Hillary Clinton should prepare herself for a dogfight - not a coronation tour

In this photo released by Genevieve de Manio Photography, Chelsea Clinton, right, is joined by her grandmother, Dorothy Rodham, center, and her mother, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Chelseas wedding day, Saturday, July 31, 2010 in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Associated Press

Vogue published a Mothers Day excerpt of Hillary Clintons forthcoming memoir Hard Choices, on Sunday. In the excerpt, Mrs. Clinton whose daughter, Chelsea, is pregnant with Mrs. Clintons first grandchild reflects on her relationship with her own mother, Dorothy Howell Rodham, who died in 2011. The book is set to be released June 10.

Im preparing for a new role that Ive looked forward to for years: grandmother, Mrs. Clinton writes. And Ive found myself thinking a lot about my relationship with my own mom, as an adult as well as in childhood, and what lessons I learned from her.

Mrs. Clinton had written about her mother previously in her Living History memoir, and revisits the harrowing tales of her mothers childhood.

Here are some highlights from theVogue excerpt:

On the last years of her mothers life, when she lived with the Clintons:

Having her so close became a source of great comfort to me, especially in the difficult period after the end of the 2008 campaign. Id come home from a long day at the Senate or the State Department, slide in next to her at the small table in our breakfast nook, and let everything just pour out.

On her mothers traumatic childhood:

In Chicago her parents fought frequently and divorced when she and her sister were young. Neither parent was willing to care for the kids, so they were put on a train to California to live with their paternal grandparents . The elderly couple was severe and unloving. One Halloween, after Mom was caught trick-or-treating with school friends, a forbidden activity, she was confined to her room for an entire year, except for the hours she was in school. By the time Mom turned fourteen, she could no longer bear life in her grandmothers house. She moved out and found work as a housekeeper and nanny for a kindhearted woman in San Gabriel who offered room and board plus $3 a week and urged her to attend high school. For the first time she saw how loving parents care for their childrenit was a revelation.

On how her mother survived this:

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Hillary Clinton Reflects on Her Own Mom

Entertainment 2016 elections Then U.S. Presidential candidate and Senator Hillary Clinton on stage with her late mother, Dorothy Rodham, during a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 7, 2007. Jason ReedReuters

Hillary Clinton has been thinking a lot about her own mother as her daughter, Chelsea, expects her first child, the former Secretary of State writes in an excerpt from her new memoir, Hard Choices.

Dorothy Howell Rodham, who passed away in 2011, helped inspire Clintons passion for public service after overcoming an abusive childhood in Chicago.

Mom helped Chelsea navigate the unique challenges of growing up in the public eye and, when she was ready, encouraged her to pursue her passion for service and philanthropy, she writes in an excerpt published in Vogue from her upcoming book. Even in her 90s, Mom never lost her commitment to social justice, which did so much to mold and inspire me when I was growing up. I loved that she was able to do the same for Chelsea.

Clinton also writes in the excerpt about the blessings and challenges of taking care of an aging parent.

Mom was a fighter her entire life, but it was finally time to let go, she writes. I sat by her bedside and held her hand one last time. No one had a bigger influence on my life or did more to shape the person I became.

You can hear Clinton read the excerpt aloud over at Vogue. Hard Choices hits bookstore shelves June 10.

[Vogue]

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Hillary Clinton Reflects on Her Late Mom and Becoming a Grandmother

Time to "rein in" guns?
John King, Peter Hamby and Robert Costa on Hillary Clinton #39;s comments about gun control and mental health.

By: CNN

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Time to "rein in" guns? - Video