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By Joe Conason<\/p>\n
To discover what Chelsea Clinton is doing with her life\u2013and why\u2013shouldn\u2019t pose much of a challenge to any reasonably industrious journalist. In recent months, after all, she has stepped into the spotlight to advance the causes that excite her. Yet the political press still seems far more inclined to ruminate over her supposed ambitions rather than report her real concerns.<\/p>\n
Which, according to her include, among other things, an unshakeable obsession with diarrhea.<\/p>\n
Speculation over the potential political future of the former First Daughter erupted Tuesday in Politico, on the CNN website and on the Washingtonpost.com political blog The Fix, which published \u201cWhere Chelsea Could Run\u201d\u2013a close analysis of residency requirements for a New York City Council seat and her obvious lack of credentials to seek the New York state attorney general\u2019s office (she isn\u2019t a lawyer). It is true that she gave an opening for such stories by responding candidly to a question from CNN and the BBC, saying that she has no current plans to run for office but might consider entering politics \u201csomeday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m … grateful to live in a city and a state and a country where I really believe in my elected officials and their ethos and their competencies,\u201d she said. \u201cSomeday, if either of those weren\u2019t true and I thought I could make more of a difference in the public sector, or if I didn\u2019t like how my city or state or country were being run, I\u2019d have to ask and answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to explain: \u201cI really felt like I could make a difference and then I should make a difference. And I had very much led a deliberately private life for a long time, and now I\u2019m attempting to lead a purposely public life.\u201d<\/p>\n
As both news outlets noted, her response was exactly the same answer she has given to the same question in past interviews. Still the Post blogger insisted, \u201cIt\u2019s also clear she is leaving that door open.\u201d Yes, perhaps, but so what?<\/p>\n
Comically enough, this flurry of pointless prognostication coincided with her latest trip to Africa, where she demonstrated precisely what she means when she mentions a public life\u2013namely, her role as the Clinton Foundation\u2019s vice chair and, increasingly, as its public face and spokesperson. She spent nine days with her father and a large contingent of foundation donors and press (including me) on a fast-paced, exhilarating and occasionally grueling tour through Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, and South Africa, touching down at the sites of health clinics, agricultural projects, youth service organizations and other efforts to improve the lives of Africans.<\/p>\n
The tumultuous welcome received by the Clinton delegation at every stop suggested the impact of the foundation\u2019s work, from life-saving AIDS medications and quality health services provided to millions across the continent to pioneering agricultural support for small farmers to major renewable energy projects\u2013as well as a newly announced initiative to produce and manufacture fortified foods in six African countries with the aim of ending child malnutrition on the continent.<\/p>\n
All of the Clintons have visited Africa repeatedly\u2013at least nine or 10 times for the former president\u2013creating relationships that will serve their own country well as that continent\u2019s economic and political importance grow. This year, however, marked the 15th anniversary of Bill Clinton\u2019s historic 1998 presidential visit, which had been preceded by a tour that Chelsea and Hillary Rodham Clinton undertook the year before. While the American media covered some of those visits and ignored others, the wide-ranging philanthropic endeavors of the former president\u2013and now his daughter\u2013have almost always gotten inadequate attention (with CNN as the honorable exception).<\/p>\n
Interviewed in Johannesburg on the current trip\u2019s final evening, Chelsea said she is bemused by all the strained conjecture about her prospective candidacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cReading those stories, I just found it a bit bewildering, because what I said in my CNN interview as well as in my BBC interview are things I\u2019ve said before and have said repeatedly before, whenever I\u2019ve been asked. … I keep saying the same thing because it continues to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having offered the same answer for two years whenever a reporter has asked whether she plans to run for elected office, she wonders, \u201cWhy is that news? I understand why maybe it was news the first time, but not now. And I understand why the CNN correspondent and the BBC correspondent would have asked about it, but not why it would have had kind of a ripple effect\u2013because it\u2019s something to which I\u2019ve had a consistent answer and something I\u2019ve had a very consistent feeling about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of recycling stale political guesswork, she says, \u201cI wish that there was more interest in the work we\u2019re doing here [in Africa] on the part of the mainstream press\u2013the work that we\u2019re grateful to do and the work that I personally am now grateful to be part of. \u201c<\/p>\n
And if that doesn\u2019t attract more journalistic attention, she is willing to confess that \u201cI personally am obsessed with diarrhea\u201d\u2013meaning the symptoms of waterborne disease that leads to diarrhea, dehydration and death for millions of children annually across Africa. Aside from her growing experience in the field, she holds a master\u2019s in public health from Columbia University. \u201cI wish that someone wanted to talk about diarrhea and why I think we really have the chance to eradicate diarrhea, even before every country across the African continent or across the world has strong public health systems of sanitation and clean water. … Yes, I wish the mainstream media were interested in things like our growing work in diarrhea or the work that we\u2019re doing in agriculture or the work we\u2019re doing on HIV\/AIDS and how important that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
No wonder she is puzzled. If media outlets think their readers find Chelsea Clinton so fascinating, why don\u2019t they just report what she is actually doing?<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2013 CREATORS.COM<\/small>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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