The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is celebrating the birth of her daughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky this morning.
Chelsea Clinton announced early Saturday morning on Twitter that she and her husband Marc had their baby, “Marc and I are full of love, awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.”
This news isn’t welcome by all, of course, as Republicans have been freaked out by Chelsea’s mom’s presidential front-runner status for 2016 and have been trying their best to bring Hillary Clinton down in advance of her even announcing a run. Being a grandmother is only going to help, because it reinforces an every woman image at a time Republicans are seeking to paint quite a different image.
The thing Republicans can’t understand is what Hillary Clinton represents to women. So it’s fitting that Chelsea gave birth to a baby girl, because her mom has been fighting for the rights of women and girls around the globe.
“I certainly feel all the better whether it’s a girl or a boy that they’ll grow up in a world with so many strong female leaders,” Chelsea said during a Clinton Foundation forum that promoted the empowerment of girls.
In May of this year, Page Six reported that when asked “What if you have a Republican?”, Chelsea Clinton volleyed, “I would find that very hard to believe.”
Clearly bitter about the “royal baby” buzz, the folks at Fox News could barely contain their pique upon the announcement of Chelsea’s pregnancy:
Granted, Chelsea is a former president’s daughter. But when Jenna Bush Hager announced her pregnancy in December 2012, it hardly got a big wave of media attention. Sure, she unveiled the news on the “Today” show, but she works for the program.
Fox also made sure to inject ugliness into their discussion by quoting Ted Cruz aide Amanda Carpenter, whose capacity for vitriol and dissemination is always reaching new heights, “I love days like this when everyone recognizes a baby is a baby and not a fetus.”
Those may or may not be the days when Ms. Carpenter isn’t trying to kill affordable healthcare reform for all just because she fears she might have to change doctors. (Actually, no one is forcing anyone to switch doctors and if Republicans would only stop feeling so entitled to things and pull themselves up by their bootstraps they’d realize that if you want to see a certain doctor, you can always pay to see him or her yourself.)
Fox jealously referenced Politico’s Clinton baby hysteria:
“… the youngest Clinton’s declaration was a politico-obstetric earthquake, a doozy of a story that highlighted both Chelsea Clinton’s growing personal prominence and Washington’s total fixation with the woman who could be the country’s first female president.”
“Clinton will be something else entirely: the most prominent American politician ever to become a grandmother. As far as sympathetic roles go, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
To which Fox spewed, “Ah, so the baby-in-waiting is already a political prop for the 2016 campaign,” as if this concept had not been exploited by them in 2008.
So you can see, Republicans will be accusing the media and the Clintons of using Chelsea’s baby as a prop and of sexism. Perhaps this is the only lens through which they can view a human being, or perhaps they only know what they needed to do in order to sell Sarah Palin in 2008.
However, the former First Lady doesn’t need to use her grandchild as her calling card, because she can actually discuss issues and Democrats don’t run by ginning up the resentment of their base. That is not to suggest that being a grandma isn’t going to be helpful; it is to suggest that Hillary Clinton doesn’t need this kind of help.
Prepare yourselves for the fallout, because nothing brings out the pettiness of the GOP like the happiness of a Democrat, especially when said happiness will only make it harder for them to smear Hillary with their misogyny toolkit.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
- Philly DA Warns Anyone Planning to Play Militia ‘F Around and Find Out’ - Mon, Nov 4th, 2024
- Opinion: Republicans Kill Another Woman with Abortion Ban as Pregnant Teenager Dies - Fri, Nov 1st, 2024
- Musk Flouts the Law with No Repercussions in Pennsylvania - Thu, Oct 31st, 2024
