Successor

If you saw this headline:

Successor as First Lady Praises Hillary Clinton

what would you think?

I actually had no clue.

Here's the lede:

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, June 9 -- First lady Laura Bush made an unusual foray into the U.S. presidential campaign, praising Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) here Monday for her "grit and strength" and coming to the defense of Michelle Obama, the wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Oh. Okay, now I get it (but to be honest, "now" is five hours after I read it, and I've been mulling it on and off all morning) - now as I post this, I get it.

But I believe there's just a bit too much omitted in that hed. We need a link between "successor" and "Hillary Clinton" - "Her successor ..." for instance. (Or maybe "Laura Bush Praises Her Predecessor as First Lady") And it would be nice if there was something in the story to justify the word in the first place. It smacks of a bit of editorializing - a bit of "women are first ladies, not presidents" seeping through.

What would have been wrong with Laura Bush Praises Hillary Clinton?

ps - I'm perhaps a bit thrown off by all the Russian press I've been reading over the past two years, where they've been obsessed with the "successor 2008" problem... but I still don't like this hed.

added (12:49):
In fact, I see in the on-line only section of campaign coverage, "The Trail", this same story is under a different hed (which I swear I hadn't read till now):