Chelsea makes case for mother at F&M

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton stumped for her mother Wednesday on Franklin & Marshall College's Hartman Green.

The 28-year-old Clinton is trying to woo college students and reverse a perception that they're largely supporting her mother's opponent in the Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Barack Obama.

"The reason why I so strongly support my mom is because I passionately believe she's the strongest, most progressive candidate," Clinton said in her opening remarks.

Her opening pitch hinged on a subject no college kid can ignore: money. She said her mother, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, has pushed legislation to expand access to higher education by increasing loan caps and making the federal government the major lender for school loans. She also said Sen. Clinton would work to allow college graduates who take work in the public sector to have their loans forgiven after 20 years on the job.

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Chelsea Clinton didn't miss a chance to criticize the Bush administration during her appearance, basically a question-and-answer session that didn't include press interviews.

Still, on her second day of a three-day sweep through the state — making stops from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia — she covered a wide swath of topics raised by the audience of about 200 students and community members.

Asked to summarize her mother's views on the Iraq War, Clinton said her mother would have "ended the war yesterday if she could."

She also said her mother was the first to question the Bush administration on its exit strategy, but the administration tried to shut her out.

"They wrote back to her, 'We don't have to tell you' — pretty classic for this administration," Chelsea Clinton said. "She wrote back, 'You do' — pretty classic for my mom."

Clinton credited her mother for being the only candidate to acknowledge 3,000-plus Iraqis who sided with the United States.

"She's been pushing the Bush administration for years to set up a refugee program … because we need to honor them," Clinton said. "… We also need to offer more diplomatic support for the Iraqi government."

Clinton said her mother endorses attempting to make allies of Iran and Syria, as well as reaching out to the people in those countries by offering them programs to improve their lives and health. The goal of one such program, she said, could be the eradication of malaria, working with a country's medical clinics regardless of whether they offer family-planning services — something the Bush administration will not do.

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Clinton was generous in her answers, but stuck to talking points and quickly shut down questions that could have led to mudslinging. When she was asked why she thought New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson threw his support behind Obama rather than her mother, Clinton said, "You'll have to ask him," and moved on. She gave a similar answer when asked why she thought Obama has more support from younger voters than her mother.

Clinton also made relatively quick work of abortion-related questions, emphasizing that her mother supports abortion that is "safe, legal, as well as rare."

She was especially well received when discussing her mother's beliefs in equality for women and expanding hate-crime laws to include transgendered people and others currently not mentioned in that legislation.

Clinton said her mother supports establishing a national system of women's shelters that would protect privacy, believes in equal pay for women and minorities for equal work and would push for funding sex education regardless of whether it focuses solely on abstinence, something else the Bush administration would not do.

"The tragedy of this administration is that it just doesn't support what it doesn't agree with," she said.

Chelsea Clinton, also making stops in Harrisburg and Allentown on Wednesday, has campaigned for her mother at 109 campuses to date.

She touched on the Olympics, which she said her mother believes should be boycotted because of China's human-rights record, and weighed in on the immigration issue.

"My mother believes we should welcome out of the shadows the 12 to 14 million people here illegally," she said, adding that criminals should be sent back to their home countries, but others should be fined and held responsible for unpaid back taxes before they could be considered for citizenship. She said her mother also endorses cracking down on employers who exploit illegal workers.

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After leaving the outdoor stage at F&M, Clinton talked with audience members and stood for countless photos.

Some audience members left Hartman Green commenting on Clinton's deft handling of questions. But when someone in earshot of Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, who was in attendance, commented that Clinton seemed out of her element in the venue, Baker Knoll leapt to her defense.

"Do you know any other girls her age who could stand up there and do that?" Baker Knoll shot back. "She was excellent."

Baker Knoll, sporting a gold "Hillary" brooch, also accused the Obama camp of planting students to ask Clinton smart-alecky questions about who supports Obama and why.

"They do that," Baker Knoll said of Obama's campaign. "They plant people to ask those smart questions, but do we do that to Obama? No. We don't do that."

 Clinton campaigns in Lancaster Wednesday.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com