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On a trip to Moscow early in her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton played the role of international saleswoman, pressing Russian government officials to sign a multibillion-dollar deal to buy dozens of aircraft from Boeing.

A month later, Clinton was in China, where she jubilantly announced that the aerospace giant would be writing a generous check to help resuscitate floundering U.S. efforts to host a pavilion at the upcoming Worlds Fair.

Boeing, she said, has just agreed to double its contribution to $2 million.

Clinton did not point out that, to secure the donation, the State Department had set aside ethics guidelines that first prohibited solicitations of Boeing and then later permitted only a $1million gift from the company. Boeing had been included on a list of firms to be avoided because of its frequent reliance on the government for help negotiating overseas business and concern that a donation could be seen as an attempt to curry favor with U.S. officials.

The November 2009 episode was an indicator of a mutually beneficial relationship between one of the worlds major corporations and a potential future president. Clinton functioned as a powerful ally for Boeings business interests at home and abroad, while Boeing has invested resources in causes beneficial to Clintons public and political image.

Boeings largesse on behalf of the U.S. pavilion at the Shanghai expo was helpful to Clinton at a critical moment as she made it her priority to woo support from corporations to revive the American presence at the event.

She was widely credited with orchestrating a turnaround, and the can-do image she cultivated as secretary of state has contributed to her status as a Democratic front-runner ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign.

In 2010, two months after Boeing won its $3.7 billion Russia deal, the company announced a $900,000 contribution to the William J. Clinton Foundation intended to rebuild schools in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The foundation, which Hillary Clinton now helps lead with her husband and daughter, has become a popular charity for major corporations.

The companys ties came into play again this month when its in-house lobbyist, former Bill Clinton aide Tim Keating, co-hosted a fundraiser for Ready for Hillary, the super PAC backing her potential presidential run.

The Boeing relationship meshed well with efforts by Clinton to expand the State Departments advocacy of U.S. economic interests abroad, part of a broader philosophy that has emphasized partnering government with businesses to solve problems. A potential side benefit for Clinton has been the chance to strengthen ties to the kind of powerful allies in the business community who could assist a possible presidential bid.

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For Hillary Clinton and Boeing, a beneficial relationship

Washington (CNN) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will address a large Jewish group in May, adding another forum to her schedule in which shes expected to talk about Mideast peace and Iran's nuclear program.

Clinton will deliver the closing address at the 2014 American Jewish Committee's Global Forum in Washington, D.C. on May 14, and organizers anticipate Clinton will "give her view on the issue of utmost concern to us," which include Iran's nuclear program, the rise of global anti-Semitism and the role of Israel in the Mideast peace process.

The address will mark the fourth time Clinton has addressed the American Jewish Committee. According to Ken Bandler, the group's spokesman, Clinton addressed the group as first lady, senator from New York and most recently as secretary of state in 2010.

In her last appearance, Clinton offered a full-throated backing of Israel, stating that the Jewish nation's security "is more than a policy position; it is a personal commitment."

"Israels right to exist is non-negotiable and no lasting peace is possible unless that is accepted, Clinton said. Regional peace must begin with the recognition by every party that the United States will always stand behind Israels security."

The three-day event features a sizable list of speakers, including Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut; Laurent Fabius, foreign minister of France and Ron Dermer, ambassador of Israel to the United States.

Bandler also said the group expects to feature a speaker from the Obama administration, but who that person is has not yet been confirmed.

Clinton's remarks are sure to continue to fan the flame of presidential speculation. The former first lady is the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and Jewish voters have long been an important base for Clinton.

During her time in the Senate, Clinton was seen as an outspoken defender for Israel and American Jews. When she ran for Senate in 2000, she worked hard to court the Jewish community and eventually won them over despite some skepticism. By the time she ran for president in 2008, her standing within the Jewish community was at an all-time high and Jewish voters favored her over then-Sen. Barack Obama in the nomination fight.

Among the chief questions at May's speech will be how Clinton feels about the preliminary nuclear deal the United States and other allies struck with Iran. The deal, which was reached after Clinton left State, looks to dial back Iran's ability to work toward a nuclear weapon and at the same time loosens the chokehold of international sanctions on Iran's economy.

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First on CNN: Hillary Clinton to address international Jewish group

During Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, the State Department allowed aircraft manufacturer Boeing to skirt ethics guidelines that first prohibited solicitations of the company by the department and later capped gifts at $1 million, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reported Monday that in November 2009, Clinton announced that Boeing would donate $2 million to support the U.S. pavilion at the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai, China on the same day she visited a Boeing hangar in Shanghai to address executives about the importance of the project.

However, State Department officials had originally prohibited the nonprofit tasked with building the pavilion from asking Boeing for a donation, claiming that the State Department's overseas lobbying on behalf of the company could present a conflict of interest. After an appeal from the non-profit, however, the department decided to cap a potential donation at $1 million, with the goal of ensuring that Boeing didn't dominate the exhibition.

A month earlier, the Post reports, Clinton had pressed Russian government officials to sign a multi-billion dollar deal to buy dozens of Boeing aircraft for use by a new state-owned airline.

"This is a shameless pitch for Rosavia ... to buy Boeing aircraft," the Post reports Clinton said while touring a Boeing facility in Moscow.

In May 2010, Boeing signed a deal worth $3.7 billion to supply planes for the new airline, Two months later, the Clinton Foundation received a $900,000 donation from the company, ostensibly to rebuild schools in Haiti.

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Report: Hillary, Boeing skirted State Dept. ethics guidelines

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures while delivering the keynote address at...

There are very few genuinely new moments in American politics. Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 was one of them. President Obama's triumph in 2008 another. Both were transformative elections, presidencies and men.

And both led to parties that struggled for a voice after their defining leader left the scene.

George H.W. Bush was a safe and reliable choice for the GOP in 1988: a longtime Washington hand with a golden resume and a seemingly endless and loyal list of supporters and donors. Lots of folks didn't like him, of course, inside his own party, inside the Democrats, inside the media and outside of the country. Remember Newsweek's "Fighting the 'Wimp Factor' " cover?

But the world was undergoing rapid and dangerous change in 1988, and a known if somewhat dull brand supported by an old D.C. pedigree and a Yalie's confidence with some southern gloss did the trick against a conventional Democratic governor: Mike Dukakis.

Got it yet? Hillary Clinton is Obama's George H.W. Bush the candidate the current president bested eight years ago but who dutifully and quietly swallowed the anger and served that president, and in doing so set herself up to succeed the man she tried eight years ago to crush.

The story of that conversion from "wife of Bill" to "heir of Obama" is ably and well told by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in the new book HRC, which is full of the inside baseball that political junkies love and on which opposition researchers thrive. Great stuff to light the hot stove of the off-season in presidential politics along with the rising chatter of a Nixon-like resurrection of Mitt Romney who would be making his third run for the White House versus Hillary's sixth (in either a leading or a supporting role) or the continued bleeding of Chris Christie by journos like Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker.

Step back from the day-to-day gossiping, though, and it is clear that 2016 is 1988 all over again, with a successor-in-waiting waiting for the out party to designate a conventional sacrificial lamb. Sure, we have had three two-termers in a row, with the parties alternating. But Obama was to the Left what Reagan was to the Right: An enormous, history-making triumph. Their partisans came, saw, conquered. And got tired. The "pros' pros" of the center-left are standing by, waiting to move in their furniture, straighten the pictures, calm down the chaos of a president who truly changed everything.

It is a powerful appeal. Consolidation. Stability. Experience. Especially with Russia in 2016 promising to be as unsteady and threatening as the Soviet Union was in 1988.

Face it. Hillary really is George W. Bush. Bush the Elder won easily in 1988, with 40 states and 426 electoral votes. The third term, but calmer, is a good pitch.

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Hillary Clinton is Obama's George H.W. Bush: The designated successor

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