PHILADELPHIA, United States (AFP) — Chelsea Clinton on Thursday tried to lift the public veil on one of America’s best-known and most disliked politicians, telling the Democratic convention her mother, their presidential nominee, was “wonderful, thoughtful” and “hilarious.”
Trying to soften a public image forged over decades of withering political trench warfare, Chelsea Clinton recounted a mother who read her “Goodnight Moon” and a grandmother who broke from politics to read “Chugga Chugga Choo Choo.”
“Whenever my mom was away for work, which thankfully didn’t happen very often, she left notes for me to open every day she was gone,” said the former first daughter.
She also recalled her mother — then in the White House as first lady — trying and failing to pass universal health care in 1994.
“I saw it up close. It was bruising. It was exhausting. She fought her heart out and as all of you know, she lost.”
“For me, then 14 years old, it was pretty tough to watch. But my mom, she was amazing.”
Chelsea Clinton went on to introduce “my mother, my hero and our next president” for a primetime speech — the high point of the four-day convention.
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