http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/hillary-clinton-2016-chelsea-116910.html#.VSu35JOGNOU2016
Chelsea’s Invisible Hand
An inside report on the shadowy role of Hillary’s most important adviser.
By KENNETH P. VOGEL
April 12, 2015
As her mother prepared to launch her second campaign for the presidency, Chelsea Clinton’s staff was compiling an email chronicling the former first daughter’s growing public profile and influence within the family’s sprawling global philanthropy.
Sent last month to family insiders from an address in her private domain—@chelseaoffice.com—the email, which was the latest in a series of quarterly Chelsea updates, included links to more than a dozen articles and video clips detailing the charitable efforts of “Chelsea and her family” and “Chelsea and her mom.” It never mentioned her parents, Bill and Hillary Clinton, by name. One article compared Chelsea Clinton’s stage presence to her father’s while in a separate video interview she declared that her peripatetic 20s left her “more able to make a difference now.”
Then, on the weekend of Hillary Clinton’s announcement of her presidential campaign, her 35-year-old daughter showed up on the cover of ELLE magazine, in a $1,500 Gucci dress and $7,000 Cartier bracelet. A preview of the interview inside featured Chelsea talking about her husband and seven-month-old daughter (who she called “the most remarkable little bubbly, perfect, chunky monkey creature ever”) as well as the gender imbalance in American politics, which she called “a fundamental challenge” that “having our first woman president—whenever that is—will help resolve.”
The message was clear: Hillary Clinton is running—and running right along with her is Chelsea. Indeed, two dozen interviews with friends and associates of the Clintons in recent weeks made clear that this once and possibly future daughter of a president is poised to become a major figure in the campaign and—if her mother makes it there—at the White House.
A “self-identified progressive” who embraced gay marriage before her parents, Chelsea Clinton brings a deep appreciation for tools like data analytics and social media that dominate modern campaigns, and she’s being counted on to help her 67-year-old mom appeal to young voters, at a time when the increasingly frail-looking family patriarch, former President Bill Clinton, is being coaxed to the sidelines. But, while the expensive clothes and jewelry Chelsea wore on the ELLE cover are likely loaners from the magazine, they underscored the potential limitations of the Clintons’ only child as a political asset. As her mother opens a campaign framed around a pitch to the increasingly stretched American middle class, Chelsea is a child of privilege with a hedge fund manager husband, a $9.25-million condo in New York’s Flatiron District and a circle of extremely wealthy friends and associates who help feed the Clintons’ political and charitable juggernaut.
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