Silver Spring, Md.
“I’m deeply passionate,” a visibly pregnant Chelsea Clinton told a crowd of around 100 Maryland voters on Thursday afternoon, her voice monotone and her eyes lifeless. (Message: She cares.) It was the first of three events that Chelsea would host on a lovely spring day, a few days before Maryland’s presidential primary. This event was occurring in a beer garden at a local microbrewery. Alas, only water was on offer.
The audience assembled to see Chelsea, which mostly comprised middle-aged women and had a smattering of 20-somethings and senior citizens, was passionate as well—at least when Chelsea lit into the political opposition. When the 36-year-old once and future First Daughter tore into the Republicans for their “sexism, racism, homophobia, and Islamophobia,” the crowd cheered lustily. Ditto for when she disapprovingly alluded to Donald Trump’s proposal to “build a wall.” That plan, Chelsea said, goes against “everything we stand for.” The crowd agreed. A detailed description of Hillary’s work in the 1990s on creating the Children’s Health Insurance Program, meanwhile, drew rather less enthusiasm.
Chelsea on the stump is her mother’s daughter. She’s deft on policy, speaking fluidly on issues spanning the Supreme Court to health care to abortion rights. But like mommy dearest, she struggles with “the vision thing.” Her speech’s pudding lacks a theme. And she’s poor at telegraphing emotion: Chelsea has one trick, which is to accentuate every third or fourth word, a tactic that quickly draws diminishing returns.
In way, a Chelsea Clinton speech is a missed opportunity. Reams have been written about who the real Hillary Clinton is. Here, the audience was listening to a person who could actually tell us. And . . . she just didn’t. Indeed, missing was any attempt “humanize” Hillary at all. Where were the stories of growing up with Hillary? Of who her mom really is? Rather, Chelsea delivered a pro-forma, Democratic party pitch – it was a speech that could have easily been delivered by, say, Debbie Wasserman Schulz.
And so we were treated to tales of Hillary’s knowledge of the Supreme Court, student loans, and the fact that she’s a “fighter,” along with the customary denunciations of the “GOP’s assault on American values.”
But we heard nothing about what Hillary is like, after a hard day of work, sitting around the dinner table. The questions that the crowd asked of Chelsea, meanwhile – “what will Hillary do about climate change?” – were hardly elucidating, either.
Still, the crowd and assorted local dignitaries seemed pleased enough to have a woman who was introduced by a local state senator as “Hillary’s amazing daughter.” As for me: I ducked out of the event a bit early, because my parking was about to expire. We’ve heard it all before, anyhow.
