Standing together: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton
Posted on 01/27/2007 5:50:27 PM PST by bruinbirdman
When her father Bill ran for the presidency in 1992, Chelsea Clinton was a gawky 12-year-old with braces and a mop of crinkly hair, ill at ease in front of the cameras.
Some 15 years later, her mother Hillary has assigned her daughter a crucial role in the family's latest White House campaign as the former First Lady hopes to firm up support among women voters with a "mum strategy".
Standing together: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton
Miss Clinton, 26, who now works for a Wall Street hedge fund, has not appeared alongside her mother since the New York senator launched her presidential bid last weekend, but her impact on the campaign is already being felt.
Sen Clinton has begun repeatedly referring to herself as a mother, with the particular experience that entails, since declaring herself "in" for the presidential race last weekend. She has described her daughter and husband as her closest advisers.
It was a point she drove home yesterday when she launched her "ground war" in Iowa, the first state to hold a presidential caucus, where Sen Clinton, the Dem-o-crats' national frontrunner, is trailing both Barack Obama and John Edwards, her two main rivals.
She has also just released a new edition of It Takes a Village, her controversial 1996 book on bringing up children. "At the core of this book is my own experience as a mother and my conviction that parents are the most important influences on the lives of their children," she writes in a fresh introduction.
Sen Clinton, 59, has been working hard to shake off her reputation as a cold and calculating political operator and cultivate a more compassionate image. Her family is crucial to that strategy but brings troubling political baggage.
At the New York book launch last week for the memoirs of Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic fund-raiser who is chairman of Sen Clinton's campaign, Bill Clinton, the former president, described his excitement at his new "supporting role" in his wife's bid to return to the White House.
"I'll do whatever I'm asked to do," he told a gathering of "Clintonistas", to loud applause. "I'm very proud of my wife. So is her daughter."
But despite his enduring popularity, many Americans still associate him indelibly with his affair with Monica Lewinsky — a scandal that Sen Clinton's advisers know does her no favours with the electorate.
With his natural charm and charisma, he also tends to upstage his wife. By contrast, Chelsea Clinton, who watched quietly from the back of the room at the Four Seasons restaurant as her father enthused about her mother's prospects, is regarded by "Team Hillary" as a big weapon in her political arsenal.
They are expected to make a joint appearance soon and she will steadily assume a more prominent role as the battle for the Democratic nomination intensifies.
Miss Clinton is already a veteran of the often harsh world of presidential politics – which is probably why she has shown no interest in pursuing her parents' choice of career.
As a teenager growing up in the White House, her father's philandering brought forth a stream of media coverage, often with lurid detail of his sexual behaviour, and her mother was pilloried for her failed attempt to reform the US health system.
While her father was president, Miss Clinton was generally kept out of the glare of publicity as she attended Sidwell Friends School, an exclusive private academy in Washington. She later studied history at Stanford University and earned a master's degree in international relations at University College, Oxford.
Despite occasional appearances in the gossip columns, she has remained intensely private. While she will appear alongside her mother at selected campaign events, she is not expected to make policy statements; rather, the presence of an assured young career woman will demonstrate Sen Clinton's maternal skills.
Even here, there is potential embarrassment. Miss Clinton's boyfriend - and soon-to-be-husband, if the tabloids are to be believed - is Marc Mezvinsky, 29, a former intern in her father's White House who now works for Goldman Sachs.
His parents were also Democratic politicians and family friends of the Clintons, but Mr Mezvinsky's father Ed, a former congressman, is serving six years in jail for fraud offences he committed to recoup losses in a Nigerian scam.
Given that the Clintons were dogged by allegations of financial impropriety over the Whitewater land deal, it seems unlikely that Sen Clinton's foes will refrain from making capital of the fact that her daughter's prospective father-in-law is behind bars for fraud.
Sen Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, also faces financial and legal trouble, accused of failing to repay $107,000 (£54,600) in loans from a carnival company whose owners received pardons from Mr Clinton when he was president.
Oh, I don't know....she seems to have the same mouth and nose of her dad, Webster Hubbell.
She stands so awkwardly all the time, it seems.....she does look MAO like in that pantsuit.....all bottom....
A chip off the old block...she is probably cooking up sleazy financial deals to rip off unsuspecting people's life savings.
no because web hubble is the father Bill Clinton had the mumps
Before and after pics?
Whenever I see a pic of Hitlery, I think "female Joseph Stalin".
I've never been one that thought Chelsea was actually ugly, even before all the plastic surgery and makeovers. There have times I even thought she was kind of 'hot'.
But really, Hillary, turning to Chelsea to soften your image is like using sandpaper for toilet paper to soften your bathroom experience.
Better adopt a orphan infant or something. You missed that boat with Chelsea by at least 15 years.
That's no cigar thats my nose.
That family picture above is missing something. Do I have to spell it out? The father. People are going to wonder, what, Chelsea has two mommies? Next time, get Webster to pose alongside, Hillary, and the nomination as well as the election will be wrapped up. Guaranteed.
So...this is the guy who's been sending me those e-mails......
She has even more of a "clown" face than mom. Give her a rubber nose and floppy shoes and she could do without the makeup.
You know, not that I normally make fun of people's looks, except for Pelosi's botoxed bug-eyes, Carville's snake head, Obama's "Dumbo" ears, Kerry's horse-face, Bubba's "W.C. Fields" nose, Denis Kucinich's striking resemblence to Alfred E. Neuman...
I thought Hill should have gone for the cute little fluffy puppy.
Why would any hedge fund pay the idiot daughter of some politician $200,000 (a guess) for access to mommy (or daddy)?
Next week Hitlery will announce the ebay sale of her mother's soul, proceeds to be used to place the first woman in the WH!!!!
Don't feel sorry for Chelsea. She's just the same as her parents. Phony from the get-go. She knows she's being used and doesn't care because Mommy and Daddy will grease the skids for her anytime she needs a job or whatever.
I thought the same as you. Just color every pantsuit black that she wears and you have Chairman Mao's disciple. The only thing missing is her little Red book. It must be in her pocket.
His parents were also Democratic politicians and family friends of the Clintons, but Mr Mezvinsky's father Ed, a former congressman, is serving six years in jail for fraud offences he committed to recoup losses in a Nigerian scam.
The Nigerians have done it again.
Get photographed without any panties out on the town with Paris Hilton?
"...Cat are better mother than Hillary..."
And has higher moral standards to boot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.