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Lewinsky still haunts Chelsea
09/04/2008 14:52 - (SA)
Indianapolis - Chelsea Clinton is spending long days on the campaign trail telling college crowds about her mother's positions on everything from health care and student-loan costs to the Darfur crisis and gay rights.
But there is one subject she will not discuss - "The Other Woman".
At least three times in the past two weeks, the former and possible future first daughter has been asked about the Monica Lewinsky scandal's influence on the presidential campaign of her mother, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The answer has evolved each time.
When a student at Butler University in Indianapolis first asked the question on March 25, she drew applause and gave a short response that ended with: "I do not think that is any of your business."
Clinton, 28, since has been less blunt, though the message is much the same.
Personal matter
"I think that is something that is personal to my family, I'm sure there are things that are personal to your family that you don't think are anyone else's business, either," she said last week when asked during a visit to North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
"But also on a larger point, I don't think you should vote for or against my mother because of my father."
Many in the crowd at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, booed on Monday when a question about the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton came up.
Chelsea Clinton quickly summed up her position: "If that's what you want to vote on, that's what you should vote on, but I think there are other people (who are) going to vote on things like health care and economics," she said.
Amanda Morris, president of Purdue's Students for Hillary chapter, said on Tuesday that she approved of the audience reaction and how Clinton is responding. She also expects the question might keep coming up.
An attention thing
"I really think it has gotten to the point where it is the attention thing," said Morris, a sophomore from Kokomo, Indiana. "At first, maybe that student really wanted to know what she thought about it. But by now it's 'Oh, that person got attention for it, I'm going to keep asking."'
Philippe Reines, a Clinton campaign spokesperson, said Chelsea Clinton has made 99 campus appearances through to Tuesday, and typically has taken 10 to 20 questions at each stop. He said the Lewinsky matter was not a burning issue among the people who have attended.
"She has been asked less than a handful of times, and she has been clear on where her lines of privacy are," Reines said. Reines said her campaign stops would continue unchanged.
Morris, the Purdue student, said she does not think Chelsea Clinton should have to face Lewinsky questions.
"That is something that has to do with their family life," Morris said. "I don't think it is something that we as a nation need to know how they handled as a family."
- AP
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US Elections Special Report
