EW YORK - He is certainly not endorsing her, but John McCain predicted yesterday that if Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the Senate, she will be a ''star'' in the tradition of Robert F. Kennedy.
''This is the first time in history a first lady has run,'' the Arizona Senator and former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination told students at Columbia University. ''She would be a star of the quality that has not been seen in the Senate since Bobby Kennedy was elected senator from the state of New York.
''Many of us believe that in a scenario if [Vice President Al] Gore lost and she is elected to the Senate, she'd be running for the president of the United States,'' McCain said.
Clinton has said that if elected she would serve her full six-year term and that she is not interested in the presidency.
Asked to clarify his remarks about Clinton, McCain said, ''I believe she'd be very liberal, and I don't believe she'd be good for the country.''
A day earlier, McCain campaigned in New York City for Clinton's Republican rival, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
McCain told the students that Giuliani would bring ''credentials to the Senate that are much needed and very sadly lacking. Giuliani understands the challenges of a major city'' on issues such as crime and transportation, he said.
