Chelsea Clinton is receiving a lifetime achievement award from Variety Magazine. This seems like one of the more glaring examples of motivated media activity attempting to keep the Clinton political dynasty alive.
The rumor seeded in this story is not the earlier one, that she plans to run for House, but that she plans to run for the U.S. Senate if Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat opens up when she runs for president in 2020.
I’m sure Chelsea has done some worthy charity work, and that’s what she’s being honored for. I have no doubt that the 37 year-old interviewer of the GEICO gecko (yes, that’s really a thing) donated most or all of the $600,000-a-year salary she got at NBC — several times what anyone else would get for doing the same job — for producing a body of journalistic work that could politely be called unmemorable.
Clinton, who famously said she “tried to care about money but couldn’t,” has in common with all super-rich people that she doesn’t have to care about money. Nothing aginst her, but she doesn’t really have the sort of lifetime of accomplishment that seems to justify either an award, a senate seat, or the wall-to-wall coverage and accolades for nearly every tweet and every comment about public affairs. I certainly don’t know any Democrats who are excited about her potential political rise.
So who exactly is the target audience for all this stuff?
