While Sen. Barack Obama spoke in Omaha Thursday, former (and potential future) first daughter Chelsea Clinton campaigned for her mother in Lincoln, as students and residents packed two arenas.
MICAH MERTES / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 6:00 pm
“Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!” chanted a procession of fans of Sen. Hillary Clinton as former, and potentially future, first daughter Chelsea Clinton made her way out the back of a Lincoln coffee shop.
As she did, the Coatneys, a Lincoln family of four, stopped her. Matt Coatney squeezed in a question about Big Oil and if Clinton’s mother would go after it. Susan Coatney asked if Chelsea would take a picture with their 7-month-old daughter, Audrey, who was perhaps the only baby in town with a “Hillary for President” sticker stamped on her back.
Leading up to Saturday’s Nebraska Democratic caucus, the Obama and Clinton campaigns hit the state hard on Thursday. Sen. Barack Obama appeared in Omaha, and Chelsea Clinton spoke on behalf of her mother Thursday at two packed Lincoln arenas: the Nebraska Union at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and The Coffee House, 1324 P St.
Clinton answered questions about her mother’s plans and policies, with topics ranging from Iraq to universal health care to her mother’s electability.
Questions mostly stuck to the nuts and bolts of her mother’s platform, but there was a personal question or two.
Responding to a question that essentially asked, “Why should we trust your mother as president?” Clinton said: “I’m biased. I trust my mom more than anyone. There’s no one that I love more or respect more or trust more in the world. And I think that’s not sufficient for you to vote for her, but it makes me proud to be standing here.”
But everyone else should trust her mother, Clinton said, “because she does what she says she will do.”
The union crowd of about 300 was, of course, made up mostly of students. Some were ardent Hillary Clinton fans; some were still on the fence. Some were just curious.
And a few were just getting out of class and had no idea what was going on.
The news of Chelsea Clinton’s arrival didn’t make the Daily Nebraskan’s Thursday edition, so some only found out at the last minute. One was UNL junior Ben Poehlman, 20, who said he’d been approached before his first class Thursday by a guy with a strip of paper that said “See Chelsea Speak.”
“I’m an Obama fan, but I figured, why not come see her speak?” he said.
Even with the state’s Democratic caucus only a few days away, quite a few students said they were still on the fence about whom to vote for. Many said they like both candidates so much they don’t have the heart to pick one.
Senior Andrea Patterson, 22, was such a Democrat. Before Chelsea Clinton took the spotlight, Patterson was as on the fence as a Democrat can be.
But after Clinton’s visit?
“I thought Chelsea was an excellent speaker who answered all of the questions very thoroughly,” she said. “She addressed some things that were on my mind, and I definitely agree with her mom’s positions.
“So, I have to say that after that, I’m definitely a little swayed toward Hillary.”
Unfortunately, that baby with the “Hillary for President” sticker on her back will never have proof that she ever met Chelsea Clinton. The Coatneys’ cell phone didn’t save the picture.
“It’s like going fishing and losing the big fish,” Matt Coatney said. “Oh well. At least we met her.”
Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.