Chelsea Moaning

Chelsea Clinton, who is currently running for a third nonconsecutive term as First Daughter, was recently campaigning for the Clinton ticket and attacked Levi Sanders' dad for his position on health care. She claimed that Bernie Sanders' health care plan to expand Medicare to everyone would theoretically allow Republican governors to dismantle Medicaid and the health insurance exchanges, which help the middle class and the poor. Chelsea Clinton made her assertion based on a 2013 piece of legislation Sanders introduced in the Senate that would repeal funding for Medicaid expansion, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and health insurance exchanges.

What Chelsea Clinton didn't say, according to the watchdog site Politifact, was that Sanders' plan would specifically require states to set up programs that meet federal standards to implement single-payer health care, with the federal government stepping in in cases of states not setting up a good enough program or (hello, Wisconsin!) not setting up anything at all.

"The Sanders campaign," Politifact added, "said the provision that allows the federal government to step in and run state programs would prevent governors who oppose the law from refusing to provide health coverage for their residents or offering sub-par programs."

What made the younger Clinton's comments so appalling is not the body of the comments themselves but the fact that she made them.  Hillary was pretty much saying the same thing in Iowa, but, as the child of the candidate, Chelsea Clinton is not the right person to do the candidate's dirty work for her, especially when it misrepresents Sanders' position.  It is unseemly and devoid of class for a candidate's daughter to sling mud at the candidate's opponents.  The most undignified thing and child of a presidential candidate should ever be expected to do is sit through an embarrassing moment with the candidate, like when Grace O'Malley sat alongside her father while he played on his guitar and sang Passenger's "Scare Away the Dark."  (Just kidding.)

Speaking of Martin O'Malley's kids, they've been helping out with the O'Malley campaign, but not by bashing Hillary or Bernie.  They have been helping their dad get noticed and have been campaigning to get the vote out for him.  William O'Malley, one of Marty's two sons and known as Will, went door to door with his dad in Iowa after Christmas in bitterly cold weather.  Alas, it's Chelsea who has the star power, and whatever she says about Sanders (or O'Malley, if he gets higher in the polls) will get a lot press and get a lot of people talking, while, if Marty ever sent his kids Will and Grace out to some Democratic function to speak for him, people would be expecting a reunion of Debra Messing and Eric McCormack and would be very disappointed.

Oh yeah, his other son and daughter are named Jack and Tara.  Tara - not Karen!   

Anyway, I hope the Clinton campaign doesn't make Chelsea undistinguish herself again, though with Sanders threatening to snatch victory away from Hillary in Iowa and New Hampshire,  we can expect Hillary and her minions to get even more nasty.  The health care issue is certain to spark some angry words between Clinton and Sanders in tonight's debate on NBC, which might allow O'Malley to play the part of an alternative voice of reason - if he's allowed to speak.

Bear in mind that his low standing in the polls almost prevented him from taking part in tonight's debate at all.