Chelsea Clinton Snubs 9-Year-Old

WKMG TV NEWS ^ | 12-31-2007

[Cagey]

VINTON, Iowa -- It's one thing for Hillary Clinton's campaign to turn down interview requests for the candidate's daughter, Chelsea. But can't a 9-year old reporter catch a break?

Sydney Rieckoff, a Cedar Rapids fourth grader and "kid reporter" for Scholastic News, has posed questions to seven Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls as they've campaigned across Iowa this year. But when she approached the 27-year-old Chelsea after a campaign event Sunday, she got a different response.

"Do you think your dad would be a good 'first man' in the White House?" Rieckoff asked, but Chelsea brushed her question aside.

"I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you're cute," Chelsea told the pint-sized journalist.

Such is the paradox of Chelsea as she campaigns across Iowa in the closing days before the state's caucuses Jan. 3.

Tall and attractive, Chelsea cuts an impressive figure on the campaign trail; she plunges enthusiastically into the crowd after her mother's speeches, shaking hands and posing for pictures while asking, "Are you going to caucus for my mom?"

But onstage, Chelsea never speaks; she stands next to her mother and applauds but utters not a single sentence and doesn't even say hello. And reporters covering the campaign have been put on notice that Chelsea is not available to speak to them. An aide follows the former first daughter as she works the crowd, shushing reporters who approach her and try to ask any questions.

Famously protective of their daughter's privacy, Bill and Hillary Clinton have taken pains to shield Chelsea from the harsh glare and rough edges of presidential politics. She stayed largely absent from her mother's campaign until December, when she made her first visit to Iowa.

For her part, Sydney looked a bit crestfallen after Chelsea turned her away. But luckily for Hillary Clinton, Sydney's mother has made up her mind to caucus for the former first lady.

"I like her position on family values and health care. And I think it's time we have a female president," Robyn Rieckoff said.

[OKIEDOC]

My 9 year old daughter has graciously put off her sleepover till Friday night.

Nothing like have a floor full of giggly girls full of vim and vinegar.

[dead]

[Cagey]

Fantastic! Hahahaha

[Palladin]

I think she's very pretty, and she dresses well. She looks a lot like the British actress Alex Kingston:

[InvisibleChurch]

what i love about the clintons is that none of them can keep their mouths shut

[FARS]

See the ANSWER to the little girl’s question!

http://alanpetersworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/chelsea-clinton-emulates-mother.html

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL

[bcsco]

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL

You too!! Have a great, healthy and safe New Year!

[SunkenCiv]

Instead of Chelsea, the kid should videotape an interview with a Howdy Doody puppet wearing a wig.

Oh! That was SUCH a cheap shot. I won’t do any more for the rest of the year, I promise.

[potlatch]

Lol, FARS! One of the few I didn’t get cleaned up all around the edges!. Sorry about that. Glad you liked it anyway!

[Tax-chick]

Well, I don’t think the actress is “pretty,” either, but she certainly has dramatic hair! And fashionable clothes and good grooming make a big difference. If the article had said Chelsea Clinton was “tall and well-dressed,” it would have avoided some of the subjectivity!

[fanfan]

Happy New Year FARS!

[bannie]

LOL!!! I will just have the two. They're 8 and 11. Miss 11 will try to keep us up all night. Miss 8 and I will crash.

I really DO look forward to this "date"! We break so many rules!

[potlatch]

Thank you Cagey!

[JamesP81]

To be such an ugly kid, she turned out pretty well.

That actually happens to a lot of people. Many folks have an ugly duckling stage in their teenage years.

[bannie]

I just don’t see that “she turned out so well.”

[JamesP81]

Hard to believe there are parents here.

A lot of hard to believe things happen in this world, even here.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

To be such an ugly kid, she turned out pretty well.

I'd hit it after a few shots of Jack's.

[JamesP81]

and it's another to viciously attack a kid campaigning for her mom.

Well, to be fair, let me add that she's hardly a 'kid'. I'm 26, I live on my own dime, choose who to work for, where to live, what to do with my money, where to go church. And she's actually older than I by a little, IIRC. So she's hardly some helpless child.

[omega4179]

A 9 year old is not a reporter and deserved a softball answer for a super softball question.

[omega4179]

“Tall and attractive, Chelsea cuts an impressive figure

???
When did that happen?”
Since all her mother’s flying monkies landed on this thread.