By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--April 24, 2017
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Chelsea, people were quietly starting to observe, had a tendency to talk a lot, and at length, not least about Chelsea. But you couldn’t interrupt, not even if you’re on TV at NBC, where she was earning $600,000 a year at the time. “When you are with Chelsea, you really need to allow her to finish,” Jay Kernis, one of Clinton’s segment producers at NBC, told Vogue. “She’s not used to being interrupted that way.”
Sounds perfect for a dating profile: I speak at length, and you really need to let me finish. I’m not used to interruptions. What comes across with Chelsea, for lack of a gentler word, is self-regard of an unusual intensity. And the effect is stronger on paper. Unkind as it is to say, reading anything by Chelsea Clinton—tweets, interviews, books—is best compared to taking in spoonfuls of plain oatmeal that, periodically, conceal a toenail clipping.Ouch. Usually, these sorts of pieces give the subject an out. There's a "but" in there somewhere that lets the unpleasant liberal-in-question off the hook. Not so here. The author, T.A. Frank, even acknowledges that to trash Chelsea is to commit left-wing heresey.
To find fault with the former First Daughter is to invite the wrath of thousands. Love of Chelsea correlates closely with love of Hillary, toward whom her fans have long felt an odd protectiveness, as if she were a stroke survivor regaining the power of speech rather than one of the most influential people in the world. That goes even more for Chelsea, who is often treated less like an independent 37-year-old multi-millionaire and more like the 12-year-old who still deserves to be left alone.
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Don’t trot out the second one. And, for the love of God, don’t trot out the third. Forgetting that rule harmed the Democratic Party in 2016 and blew up the Republican Party entirely. The Democratic Party is surprisingly cohesive these days, thanks to anti-Trump sentiment, so a Jeb-style destruction is unlikely. But never say never. If anyone could make it happen, Chelsea could.As I said before, the desire to make Chelsea Clinton "happen" is a desire to return to the "good ol' days." But, like the saying goes, you can't go home again. Democrats have a painfully shallow bench, little or no influence in most of the country, and the only thing that would really save their bacon - the elimination of the electoral college - simply 'ain't gonna happen.' They can't change their agenda, since doing so would alienate either moderates or the rabid lefty base, and they haven't been able to find a young, fresh face, to realign their stars. So, they're painted into a corner. All of that should bring a smile to conservative faces. Until they figure out a new course of action, let's hope they keep trying to ram Chelsea down left-wing throats. If she's the new Jeb!, she's exactly the kind of Democrat candidate I want to see more of.
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