Former ABC Reporter Puffs Chelsea Clinton: 'Everyone I Know Is a Feminist'

The national newspaper supplement Parade magazine is championing Chelsea Clinton on its cover on Sunday.  “The former (and potentially future) first daughter on her grandmother’s wisdom, finding her own voice, and the power of making a difference.”

The interviewer/flatterer is former ABC News reporter Lynn Sherr, who eventually makes her way to her usual path, proclaiming the gospel of feminism (and by extension, "extraordinary" Hillary). Chelsea, currently an NBC News staffer -- see "The Misery Continues" -- announced that positively everyone she knows is proud to be a feminist:

SHERR: Your mother has been an extraordinary champion of women’s issues. Do you call yourself a feminist, too?

CHELSEA: Of course. And everyone I know is a feminist.

SHERR: Some young people see the word as having bad connotations. You don’t shy away from it.

CHELSEA: No. I think certainly for us—whether “us” is defined as my family or “us” is defined as CGI—we believe we have to keep talking about a problem and working on developing solutions to stubborn, not-yet-cracked challenges. And so many things that fall into that category relate to women and girls. It’s not only morally the right thing to do but it’s also the smart thing for us to do, to get to the better world we talked about earlier.

There was no humor or questioning about how Bill Clinton single-handedly made the feminist establishment self-collapsing over  his sexual harassment of Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey, the sexual assault alleged by Juanita Broaddrick, and the disastrous affair inside the White House with Monica Lewinsky, who was six and a half when Chelsea was born. There was no questioning whether Hillary could be an "extraordinary champion" of women while trying to crush these women and their allegations.

The only picture of Hillary came from Chelsea's wedding day, not from Chelsea holding both parents' hands as they left the White House after Hillary was "told" the Lewinsky story was true late in the summer of 1998. (Never believe she didn't know in 1996.)

There was only this note, the most negative slam on Chelsea in this puff piece, although apparently offered with laughter: "Speaking of your family, your father was governor when he was 32. You’re 33. Do you feel like a laggard?" Chelsea replied, "No. My father always knew what he wanted to do. And I don’t. If I had one singular galvanizing ambition in life, I would try to reverse engineer toward it, but I don’t."

Before the Q&A, the former ABC reporter wrote goo like this:

At 33, she wears her political royalty in triplicate: There are her famous parents, of course, but also her mother-in-law, former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies. [A one-term congresswoman is royalty?] After several years in the private sector (with McKinsey & Company, then with a hedge fund), Clinton has emerged onto the civic stage in her own right, graceful and glowing and, today at least, in brilliant magenta and lime green...

Clinton’s concentration does not waver. She demonstrates a masterly command of the issues and swiftly zeroes in on crucial questions. Statistics roll comfortably off her tongue; praise comes as quickly as critical suggestions. Wonky words like metrics and cohort fit naturally into her carefully constructed sentences.

Inside the cover, the article's headline was "Chelsea Leans In: The former first daughter is stepping into the public eye and embracing the family legacy -- in fact, with the help of an army of talented young doers, she's ready to change the world."

But Sherr on Republican first ladies? See "Laura Bush's Human Rights Fiasco."