Wednesday, March 26, 2008
If Chelsea Clinton has a problem with the question, she only has her father to blame
Chelsea Clinton was asked a question she didn’t like. While visiting Butler University speaking to students about her mother, student Evan Strange asked for her opinion “on the criticism of her mother that how she handled the Lewinsky scandal might be a sign of weakness and she might not be a strong enough candidate to be president.”
I don’t really understand the question, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with Monica Lewinsky.
Chelsea responded with:
Wow, you’re the first person actually that’s ever asked me that question in the, I don’t know maybe, 70 college campuses I’ve now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business.
When I first watched the video, I agreed with her. It was a private matter and it really was nobody’s business. The problem with that is that Bill Clinton made it our business. We all got dragged into the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. He could have made this whole problem go away before it ever happened. He could have simply paid Paula Jones the $850,000 that he eventually ended up paying her anyway. If he would have done that in the beginning, he could have avoided being deposed under oath by Jones’ attorney. He wouldn’t have felt the need to lie about his relationship with Lewinsky.
It’s too bad that out of 70 college visits, nobody asked Chelsea Clinton that question before. They should have. I guarantee people have wondered about it. Evan Strange had the guts to ask it. Good for him.
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I hate people that ask questions just to try and show someone up. How could she have possibly responded to that question? “I think my mother shouldn’t be President”?
When I was in school, there was always one or two assholes just like that. Instead of showing how “ballsy” you are in asking a brash question, ask a question that has some substance to it.
Not that this is totally relevant, but all of the people that I have ever met named “Evan” have turned out to be real turdmuffins.
If you had the opportunity to ask her something, you wouldn’t want to ask her about that? What really is there to ask Chelsea? What’s your favorite color? If you were a tree, what kind would you be?
If I was a college kid and she was coming to my school, I would show up wearing a blue dress.
Hillary said something yesterday that really rubbed me the wrong way. She was talking about Barack Obama and his nutty paster. She said that if he was her paster, she would have left the church. She wouldn’t have stayed. Well, that’s kinda funny because she decided to stay with Bill even after he pull the stunt with Monica.
Maybe she shouldn’t be criticizing other people when it comes to deciding whether to stay or go when someone does something dumb.
Being in a church that preaches bigotry is very different than trying to mend a relationship in which one person has had an affair.
Also:
Why would anyone even bother to go see Chelsea Clinton? Who the fuck has that much time on their hands that that seems like a great idea?
And why would bringing up her father’s infidelity (or infidelities) seem appropriate? She had nothing to do with that.
The Clinton campaign has a total hands-off policy regarding Chelsea– no interviews, no questions from the press.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If she is out campaigning for her mother, she is subject to the same rules that apply to any surrogate of the candidate.
Still, it’s nice to see the Clintons so protective of their 28 year old daughter.
If you can’t ask Chelsea a question without the Clintons going ballistic, just think what they would have done if, when she was say a 22 year old intern, the 49 year old CEO of the company used her as a sexual toy?
Too bad they forgot that Monica was somebody else’s 22 year old daughter when Bill took advantage and the whole Clinton team geared up to destroy her–until the blue dress evidence made that smear campaign pointless.
Schooly wrote:
Is it? I’m not too sure. I think most women would have left their husband if they did what Bill did. Remember, this wasn’t the first time he had done something like this. I’m sure that last time he fooled around on the side he said it would not happen again.
I think most women — especially those that had the the economic resources to do so — would have left Bill Clinton when the truth came out. She didn’t do that. She decided to stay.
I think it’s more then fair to ask their 28 year old child about it. She was there to answer question about her ma. Why not ask her about the one thing that makes her so different then everyone else?
If she was involved in the affair it would be a fair questions. She wasn’t. How could she answer questions about it? Why would she? It was a question asked by a snarky attention-whore. If he really wanted to ask a question, why would he even be talking to Chelsea Clinton? It’s just stupid.
And the situation IS very different concerning the pastor and Hillary leaving President Clinton. If you think the relationship between a husband and wife is the same as the relationship between a person and their religious leader, I certainly don’t want to see you at your place of worship!
Its not about the affair. Its about the decisions made after the affair. She (Hillary) made a decision that is far different then the decision everyone else I know would have made. The only reason I could ever see staying with someone that did that to me would be if I lacked the basic economic ability to go out on my own.
Hillary clearly didn’t have that problem.
I think it was more then a fair question to ask Chelsea because she is out speaking on behalf of her mother. If she doesn’t want to be asked tough questions, she should have stayed home.
The situation concerning Obama’s pastor and Hillary’s cheating husband are similar in the fact that both required the candidates to makes a decision. Obama decided to stay at the Trinity United Church of Christ. Hillary decided to stay with Bill Clinton. Why is it OK to ask Obama about his decision, but it’s NOT OK to ask about Hillary’s? Why should it be OK for Hillary to criticize Obama’s decision but it’s not OK to even ask Chelsea? Again, Chelsea is representing Hillary. Both Bill and Chelsea are sent out on the campaign trail to speak on Hillary’s behalf.
Because Chelsea can’t speak for her mother. Just because she’s out trying to gain support for her mother doesn’t mean that she can answer questions about her mother’s state of mind or the decision making process that her mother went through.
It would be like me asking you about what Hillary was thinking. You just aren’t qualified to answer that question and neither is Chelsea Clinton.
If you want to ask Hillary about it, that’s a different story. It’s not a “tough question” for the daughter to answer, it’s impossible. If the person asking the question were truly as brash and intelligent as he thinks he is, he’d be asking that question of Hillary Clinton.
And just because you equate the issues (Obama and his pastor and Bill Clinton’s affair) doesn’t mean that they are equal. Obama’s pastor was actually part of his campaign. Bill Clinton’s infidelity doesn’t have any bearing in the campaign. Maybe for you personally it does, but it really wouldn’t impact the candidate’s job as President.
And at the heart of this issue is the fact that everyone already knows why Hillary stayed with Bill. It was about power and politics. SO the asshole asking that question is either naive or just trying to be clever, unsuccessfully.
If Chelsea can’t speak for her mother, then she shouldn’t be out speaking for her mother. That is precisely what she and her father are doing. They are on the campaign trail speaking for their mother. Chelsea is supposedly visiting schools so she can talk about her mother. Supposedly she is there to also answer questions about her mother.
And I’m not equating Obama’s nutty paster to Hillary’s cheating husband. The two things are entirely different. What is the same though is both candidates faced an issue where they had to make a decision. Hillary can question Obama’s judgment concerning his decision — which I believe she has every right to do — but nobody can question Hillary’s judgment?
Hillary could have remained silent on the issue of Obama’s paster. She chose to put herself in Obama’s position and then say she would have done things differently. I think it is then disingenuous to complain when someone questions her judgment about a personal issue.