Well, if you are wondering about the political implications of Chelsea Clinton being pregnant, that was covered by Haley Sweetland Edwards in the March/April/May issue of the Washington Monthly.
Here’s a snippet:
For Hillary, becoming a grandmother offers another particular advantage: it will give her the space to create a new public image. One that is softer. Cuddlier. More relatable. More real.
And that’s exactly what Hillary needs. For years, she’s been hamstrung by schizophrenic reviews from those she needs to win over. On one hand, people seem to agree that she is by nearly all counts the logical, most electable candidate on the blue team. In nearly all polls over the last four years, Democratic voters have found her competent, strong, intelligent, and imminently electable. But on the other hand, when it comes down to measuring that slippery je ne sais quoin of a candidate’s likability, there’s something about the lady that makes many in the Democratic base just sort of squinch up their face. (You know the look: “It’s not that I don’t like her; it’s just that …”) To many liberals, the allegation is often that she’s too shrewdly ambitious, too obviously the product of the steely, well-oiled Clintonland political machine. (In the lead-up to the 2008 election, liberal editor Robert Kuttner worried that “everything she does seems calculating, poll-tested, and money-driven.”) To many moderates, she’s just plain dull.
Becoming a grandmother could help remedy both those problems.
It definitely will remake her image for about the umpteenth time. It will also have some effect on how people perceive Bill. A doting grandfather image has little in common with the skirt-chaser of old that the late-night comics never tired of exploiting.
In any case, congratulations to the whole family.
Cements her image as a grand dame. And people love grandmothers. It’ll be a big political asset for Hillary.
Ahead on Fox News: Hillary Clinton a grandmother. Is she too old to be president?
Does Haley cite an actual likeability poll – or is that face scrunching thing just interviewing her thumb?
I have yet to see a Democratic poll that isn’t…like the best prospective candidate poll I’ve ever seen!
If Bill is a shirt-chaser instead of a skirt-chaser, I’m gonna have to prepare myself for a whole different set of rumors to start flying! 🙂
Well, if it hasn’t been said already in the Right Wing Noise Machine, it will be very shortly.
Rush-Bo on the radio: “Make no mistake about it, people! Chelsea Clinton’s pregnancy is a calculated political move by the Clintons to soften Hillary Clinton’s image in preparation for her 2016 run! How craven is that, ditto-heads? Having your daughter bear a child, simply to enhance your political position. Is there no limit to how low that Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democratic Femi-Nazis will go to perpetuate their dynasty?”
Yup. “Baby truthers” soon enough…
And here they are: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chelsea-clinton-baby-campaign-ploy
As horrible as GWB was as POTUS and Governor of TX, his daughter Jenna got married (while GWB was in the WH) with far less public to-do over the event than Chelsea’s multi-million dollar wedding. Jenna handled the pregnancy and birth of her first child without much public fanfare — not secret but not exploited for publicity value. The Bush family doesn’t have much class considering the generations of family wealth, but the Clintons …
Prince George’s reign as the media’s most favored baby is coming to an end.
Wow, those Clintons will do anything for a vote, huh? Even breed! One day, God forbid it should be too soon, Clintons are going to start dying, and Politico and Wapo are going to be right on it wondering what the strategic payoff is.
Don’t forget Andrew Sullivan.
So they can get the memorials.
Well isn’t that nice. Here’s hoping becoming a grandmother will soften her tendencies toward aggression and militarism. God help us.
“But in recent interviews, two dozen current and former administration officials, foreign diplomats, friends and outside analysts described Mrs. Clinton as almost always the advocate of the most aggressive actions considered by Mr. Obama’s national security team — and not just in well-documented cases, like the debate over how many additional American troops to send to Afghanistan or the NATO airstrikes in Libya.
Mrs. Clinton’s advocates — a swelling number in Washington, where people are already looking to the next administration — are quick to cite other cases in which she took more hawkish positions than the White House: arguing for funneling weapons to Syrian rebels and for leaving more troops behind in postwar Iraq, and criticizing the results of a 2011 parliamentary election in Russia.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/us/politics/unfinished-business-complicates-clintons-diplomatic-le
gacy.html?hp&_r=1
I suppose I’ll vote for her if she is the nominee, but doing so will not change anything for the better.
Yeah, and the Clinton record on Labor issues is pretty mediocre to poor. Someone listed as among the accomplishments Hillary would bring to her campaign was the seat she held on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors. Well, I suppose it’s an “accomplishment” as it relates to her ability to access power, but her Wal-Mart past also describes Hillary’s inability or unwillingness to help the average American with her power.
She also has, fairly or not, the millstone of Bill’s signing of NAFTA and its enabling of the never-ending mega-trade deals which screw over workers and environments, and the fact that the computer technology boom which took off during Bill’s term has developed a completely reprehensible record on Labor relations. The recent class-action lawsuit which has revealed the worst sort of compensation-depressing collusion between Apple, Google, Yahoo and other firms is the latest and purest example of this.
True story about Dan / Marilyn Quayle.
First time he runs for the House she’s pregnant.
First time he runs for the Senate she’s pregnant.
Right after his Senate election, the Allen County Democratic chair is at a non-partisan political event in Ft Wayne, IN sitting at the same table with Marilyn.
ACDC: You must be very happy about Dan’s election. Congratulations.
Marilyn: Oh yes, the whole family is so proud of him. Thank you very much.
ACDC: No, I mean you must be very happy. Now you only have to get pregnant every 6 years.
I recommend that Chelsea get pregnant again in 2016, twins if they can swing the in vitro.
Not to be too cynical though.
It will be interesting to see how the wingnut media spins this – Hillary as grandmother, etc. I have no idea what they’ll say but am sure that it will be 100% hypocritical compared to their treatment of Sarah Palin becoming a grandmother during her VP campaign.