David Jackson

USA TODAY

It sounds like an endorsement — an interesting one.

Former general David Petraeus tells the authors of a new book on Hillary Rodham Clinton that "she'd make a tremendous president."

The comment is in HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes; it hits bookstores on Tuesday.

Petraeus, often called the Republicans' favorite general, even praises Clinton for her handling of the incident that has drawn the most Republican criticism of the former secretary of State, the 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya.

"Like a lot of great leaders, her most impressive qualities were most visible during tough times," Petraeus says in HRC. "In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, she was extraordinarily resolute, determined, and controlled."

It's worth noting that Clinton criticized Petraeus back when he ran military operations in Iraq.

From an ABC News account of the new Clinton book:

"Clinton's courtship of her erstwhile foe began shortly after President-elect Obama nominated her as Secretary of State in 2008. She invited Petraeus, then the military's top commander for the Middle East, to her home in Washington, D.C., to share a bottle of wine and talk about the Middle East.

"Allen and Parnes write that the session went so well, she invited him back for another meeting the following night, and another bottle of wine.

"After Petraeus was forced to resign as CIA Director over an extramarital affair, Clinton sent him a note expressing sympathy and harkening back to her struggles on the other side of an adultery scandal.

"'I have a little experience,' she wrote."