Althouse: The idea that Chelsea could be Hillary Clinton's First Lady.

May 13, 2015

The idea that Chelsea could be Hillary Clinton's First Lady.

Expressed by C-SPAN co-CEO Susan Swain, who has produced a TV series on America's first ladies and written a book on the same subject.

51 comments:

Anonymous said...: gag; 5/13/15, 8:52 AM
tim maguire said...: Even if we had federally recognized gay marriage, Hillary is still unlikely to be able to marry her daughter. So no, I don't think President Clinton will be able to make Chelsea her first lady.; 5/13/15, 8:52 AM
Anonymous said...: Nut graf...

If she were to manage the East Wing in a Hillary Clinton White House, it would clear her father Bill's plate to take on a policy role in the new administration or continue working with his non-profit, although Swain noted that could get 'dicey.'; 5/13/15, 8:54 AM
Tank said...: If anyone should be first lady, it would be Huma, no?; 5/13/15, 8:55 AM
MayBee said...: We need a First Lady....why?; 5/13/15, 8:58 AM
DanTheMan said...: At her age, I doubt Hill remembers who her first lady was.

Not that there's anything wrong with that....; 5/13/15, 8:58 AM
rhhardin said...: Soap opera will continue until morale improves.; 5/13/15, 9:04 AM
ndspinelli said...: Hillary's gay lover, Huma, will be FLOTUS.; 5/13/15, 9:05 AM
damikesc said...: Chelsea is the most clear cut piece of evidence that any measurable talent is not required to be fabulously wealthy.

She also kills the whole Democratic mantra of how they look out "for the little guy".

...they are putting her on magazine covers and the like. The talentless offspring is fair game.; 5/13/15, 9:06 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/13/15, 9:06 AM
ndspinelli said...: Sorry Tank. Great minds.; 5/13/15, 9:06 AM
Gahrie said...: There have been times in the past where a daughter served as First Lady.; 5/13/15, 9:06 AM
ndspinelli said...: I don't know about cooking, but I believe Huma does all the munching.; 5/13/15, 9:08 AM
MayBee said...: "Manages the East Wing" = the circular business of having a staff for the first lady and a first lady that manages the staff.

Why not just hire a house manager and be done with it? We don't need a Head of Lifestyle and Fashion First Lady. It's too expensive!; 5/13/15, 9:14 AM
Tank said...: Lotta love for Huma here.

What a life, Hillary, the big V, as her lover, and Weiner as her Weiner. Yiiiii.; 5/13/15, 9:14 AM
rehajm said...: When you lump together all of the above scenarios you get a lovely version of The Aristocrats.; 5/13/15, 9:22 AM
Bryan C said...: Gah. Hillary/Chelsea journalist fanfic. It makes the simpleminded wish-fulfillment of "The West Wing" look like a rough day at the Watergate hearings.; 5/13/15, 9:27 AM
Curious George said...: Webb Hubbell would be soooo proud.; 5/13/15, 9:28 AM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: At her age, I doubt Hill remembers who her first lady was.

Oh, come on, she's human after all. Everybody remembers their first one, unless they were roofied, of course.; 5/13/15, 9:31 AM
Darrell said...: Well, she's the equal of Joe Biden, then, But we knew that.; 5/13/15, 9:33 AM
kcom said...: " it would clear her father Bill's plate to take on a policy role"

That's not where I thought that was going. I thought it would clear his plate to gallivant around the world feeling up women who are not his wife. That's a plate-clearing he could really go for.; 5/13/15, 9:38 AM
Michael K said...: "Webb Hubbell would be soooo proud."

I thought it was Janet Reno but I could be wrong.; 5/13/15, 9:43 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: What MayBee said.

Cspan has become a joke too I guess when its CEO is wasting her and our brain cells on this non-issue.; 5/13/15, 9:47 AM
Chuck said...: This is what makes the Lindsay Graham candidacy so fascinating. Nobody can countenance any speculation about Graham's sexual orientation without equal time for the Hillary/Huma relationship.; 5/13/15, 9:55 AM
MadisonMan said...: (Runs away, screaming, with hands over ears).; 5/13/15, 9:55 AM
madAsHell said...: 1. Collect the underpants.
2. ???
3. President.; 5/13/15, 10:08 AM
Fabi said...: Chelsea would be the most qualified First Lady evah!!

/prog; 5/13/15, 10:11 AM
Brando said...: As First Lady, Chelsea would finally have a job that even she is qualified for! Sitting around, doing nothing...though I'm sure even she could find a way to screw it up. Her mother certainly did.; 5/13/15, 10:31 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Oliver Sacks, the great, dying neurologist, wrote about how parents came to him, lamenting their kids' failure to perform at high levels, and he observed that it was merely regression toward the mean.

Chelsea is that in a nutshell.; 5/13/15, 10:36 AM
Anonymous said...: It's sexist to suggest that Bill could function as president, but not first (lady/man)... while Hillary could function as both. No?; 5/13/15, 10:40 AM
JAORE said...: Well, Chelsea had the journalism experience to draw on, and she's familiar with both politics and financial institutes. Osmosis is AWSUM.

Plus, how could the suck-up press spend four (or eight!) years gushing about another SWELL pantsuit and how concealing it can be. Chelsea and child would be the fashion show ponies.; 5/13/15, 10:53 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I like the idea of Hillary as president and Chelsea as first lady so we get to save some money on secret service protection.; 5/13/15, 11:19 AM
damikesc said...: I'll give em credit --- they are trying to kill the idea of "This is a story I cannot possibly give less of a shit about".

Because they ALWAYS find stories that, amazingly, I do give less of a shit about than the prior story I didn't give a shit about.

If we lost the media...what, exactly, would be the downside at this point?; 5/13/15, 11:23 AM
mikee said...: The narrative of Hillary as inevitable continues to be promulgated, despite the objective reality of the citizenry recoiling in horror from the prospect of a Hillary presidency.; 5/13/15, 11:51 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: "The idea that Chelsea could be Hillary Clinton's First Lady."

Making incest the new gay marriage! Progress!; 5/13/15, 12:45 PM
Anonymous said...: I have a better plan for Chelsea to work on her manifest destiny...

She should be the democrat VP Nominee.

She is 35, had a stellar career in consulting, journalism, NGO management, it's only fair that she pay forward and give back to the nation by taking on this thankless job...; 5/13/15, 12:50 PM
Bobby said...: Officially, there have been numerous First Ladies who were not the wife of the President. Martha Jefferson Randolph is officially credited as the first daughter to serve in the role (although technically, Dolley Madison also performed much of the First Lady duties). Andrew Jackson was supported by both his niece and his daughter-in-law during his administrations. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Buchanan, Benjamin Harrison and Woodrow Wilson were each supported for all or part of their administration(s) by a First Lady who was not their wife, but their daughter, daughter-in-law or niece.

But I guess if one doesn't know their American history, it seems there's no precedent for that.; 5/13/15, 1:07 PM
holdfast said...: I nominate Tod Palin. He has some experience in being "first dude".; 5/13/15, 1:56 PM
gerry said...: That's insulting to Huma. Huma has invested a lot into the relationship, and she does all the cooking.

I wonder if Hil yells at Huma, "MAKE ME A SAMMICH!"; 5/13/15, 3:00 PM
Brando said...: We shouldn't HAVE first ladies--it's an antiquated notion that makes little sense in this day and age. Why does a president need a female (or male) counterpart at all, let alone one who will occupy a passive role? After all, any first lady who tries to do more than that will be rightly scolded for abusing her unelected position, and at the same time it seems wrong to require someone capable of more than quiet noncontroversiality to fit that role.

Better idea--get rid of the position entirely. You can still be a president's spouse, but no staff, no title, and media coverage equivalent to what we give the president's siblings.; 5/13/15, 3:03 PM
gerry said...: If you've lost Alan Colmes are you really inevitable?; 5/13/15, 3:04 PM
William said...: Someone mentioned regression to the mean. It happens. None of Grace Kelly's kids were ethereally beautiful, and some weren't even good looking......Chelsea doesn't have her mother's grasp of finance. She didn't even try to parlay that journalism gig into a product placement bonus. She could have appeared on air sipping from a Coke bottle and thereby picked up a few extra bucks. Hillary certainly would have. (The Chipotle people were big contributors to the Clinton Foundation.) Plus I have the sense that the more people see of Chelsea, the less they will like her. Caroline Kennedy was liked and admired until she granted a few interviews. Chelsea is a mean regression.; 5/13/15, 3:41 PM
Anonymous said...: I imagine a number of people support Hillary because they see her election as a third (and even 4th) term for Bill, but if he's replaced by Chelsea and out of the picture, why would they bother to vote for HRC? Floating this idea of Chelsea as FLOTUS does Hillary no favor.; 5/13/15, 4:57 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Look if the Hildebeest is elected POTUS, she won't be the first President to have a daughter act as "first lady". I think at least two of the 19th Century Presidents found themselves in that situation. A busy executive (or a clueless twit like Hillary) needs somebody to handle the social calendar.

I'm not saying that Chelsea's up to the task, but she won't be a "first" in that role.; 5/13/15, 7:31 PM
Skyler said...: We need to end the institution of "first lady." It's a throwback to when the good wife would throw dinner parties. It never should have become a paid position and never should include staff. With this talk of Chelsea it has become an abomination.

Let's just combine the first lady duties with Vice President. He's the second banana we voted for.; 5/13/15, 8:11 PM
Todd Roberson said...: The article begins ... "If the Clinton's move back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave ..." ...

Stopped reading there. Reading on would be equivalent to reading an article that kicks off with "If monkeys fly out of my ass ..." ...

Ain't gonna happen. In fact, Hillary won't even be the democratic nominee.; 5/14/15, 2:26 AM
RecChief said...: Iapetus said...
I imagine a number of people support Hillary because they see her election as a third (and even 4th) term for Bill, but if he's replaced by Chelsea and out of the picture, why would they bother to vote for HRC?

You're missing the subtle point of this work of fangirl fiction. That being, if Chelsea took over the fluff social stuff, then Bill would have a policy role. Quite a few people in this country look fondly on the Clinton presidency years, mostly because it happened to coincide with a stock market bubble. the writer is making a subtle case for, wink wink, a third Bill Clinton term.; 5/14/15, 5:41 AM
Brando said...: "Ain't gonna happen. In fact, Hillary won't even be the democratic nominee."

I wish I had your confidence--the way I see it, too many Democrats just don't see an alternative, and will back Hillary by default (because the GOP will be toxic to them). Then, because the Dems have some natural advantages in the electoral college and a unique ability to make their nominees unattractive to the general public, Hillary has about a 50-50 chance of becoming president, despite being a terrible politician with a record of corruption and incompetence.; 5/14/15, 5:58 AM
Rusty said...: Does anybody else find the Clintons -guy in the alley selling crap out of the trunk of his car- kind of shabby?
I mean it's kind of like the punk family, all tattoos and piercings and leather outfits and that high on crytal meth look, riding with you on the monorail at Disney World.
Sad.; 5/14/15, 6:00 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Anyone know of some Clinton slash fiction? Seems inevitable, or what is it Mickey Mays says, over-determined?; 5/14/15, 7:52 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Kaus not Mays, sorry stupid Android phone has its own ideas...or Sergei Brin's...; 5/14/15, 7:53 AM