Chelsea key to shaping mom’s story
Unique insight invaluable
PHILADELPHIA — Chelsea Clinton painted a deeply personal picture of her mother, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as an attentive and caring parent and also a lifelong advocate for children and the disadvantaged.
“I never once doubted that my parents cared about my thoughts and my ideas,” Chelsea said of her childhood in introducing her mother at the Democratic National Convention last night. “That feeling of being valued and loved, that’s what my mom wants for every child. It is the calling of her life.
“My parents raised me to know how lucky I was that I never had to worry about food on the table,” Chelsea Clinton said, “that I never had to worry about having good schools to go to.”
The speech by the 36-year-old only child of Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton took a much more personal tone than that delivered at last week’s Republican National Convention by GOP nominee Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who is also a close friend of Chelsea Clinton.
While Ivanka Trump focused largely on her father as a business leader, Chelsea Clinton focused on her mother’s spirit of service and empathy. Even in talking about the former secretary of state’s work for education reform as the first lady of Arkansas, her ultimately unsuccessful push for universal health care during her husband’s administration, or her work for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks as a U.S. senator, Chelsea Clinton focused less on what her mother did and more on what motivated her.
“She’s a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice and a heart full of love,” Chelsea Clinton said. “So this November I’m voting for a woman who is my role model as a mother and as an advocate.
“I’m voting the fighter who never, ever gives up — who believes that we can always do better when we come together and work together,” she added.
Chelsea Clinton is set to play a larger role as the presidential campaign shifts into general election mode, not only in helping personalize her mother, but also to speak to the issues millennials — including those who supported Bernie Sanders — care about.
“I think Chelsea could play a really great role in connecting with me as a young female, without children, and the issues that are most important to me,” said Crystal Moore, a Sanders delegate from Cambridge. “Issues like affordable education and bringing down student loan debt, and also making sure that there are equitable wages for women.”