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*Moderator*
First post: 7/25/2007
Last post: 11/24/2009
Total posts: 273
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At a campaign event for her mother at Butler University, Chelsea Clinton was reportedly asked by student Evan Strange whether her mother's credibility had suffered during the Lewinsky scandal. Her response: "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." The crowd applauded. Afterward, some journalists asked whether the younger Clinton should be "off limits." Chelsea Clinton is 28, and so it is appropriate to treat her less delicately than were she still 13. On the other hand, she shouldn't be grilled as though she were the candidate or a politician who is supporting the candidate. I think Strange's question was fair, and Chelsea Clinton's answer nonsensical. If he had asked her how she felt about her father's adultery, or how her mother had felt, she would have been within her rights to shoot the question down as an invasion of her privacy. But the question concerned the public effects of a presidential candidate's public remarks in one of the best-known political events of that candidate's life. Chelsea Clinton was asking the students to support a presidential candidate. One of them wanted to know whether her conduct in a scandal that led to a presidential impeachment had reduced people's confidence in her as a truth-teller. How can that possibly be none of the public's business? Chelsea Clinton is confusing what's private and what's public. In that respect she takes after her father. What do you think?
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