Stumping for mom, Chelsea Clinton charms Penn crowd

GET READY, Pennsylvania. The Clintons are coming.

Former - and perhaps future - first daughter Chelsea Clinton showed up first, stumping for Mom at the University of Pennsylvania yesterday.

"I hope you don't get tired of seeing me or seeing my family, because I have a feeling we'll be here a lot," Clinton told the crowd of several hundred outside Penn's Houston Hall.

The 28-year-old appeared the day after Sen. Hillary Clinton pulled out wins in the Ohio and Texas Democratic presidential primaries, giving her the boost to push on to the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania.

Stylishly casual, Clinton stood on the small stage in dark fitted jeans, patent-leather heels and a tailored tweed blazer. Her blond curly hair cascaded down her shoulders.

Clinton has taken a leave of absence from her six-figure gig at a Manhattan hedge fund run by Clinton cohorts. Since December, she has been hitting the campaign trail hard for Mom, mostly appearing on college campuses in an effort to attract younger voters, who've been flocking to Clinton's rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

For about an hour Clinton took questions from students on issues such as health care, the war in Iraq and abortion rights. Clinton proved she shares her mother's unflappable poise and recall for details.

"I think what my mother has talked about in this race, she's talked about my whole life and longer," Clinton said. "I'm more inspired by her every day."

Clinton stressed her mother's experience, citing legislation Clinton had introduced and passed. And she repeatedly said that her mom had the best policy plans and knew how she would pay for them.

"My mother is the only person running who tells you how she'll pay for everything," she said.

Although one student waved an Obama sign, the crowd seemed to be largely in the Clinton camp and the questions were uniformly polite.

Asked if her mother would try to win the nomination through superdelegate support, if she doesn't earn enough pledged delegates, Clinton said the race wasn't over yet.

"There's still a lot of states left to vote," she said.

One student asked her what she thought about the fact that, if her mom were elected, there would be more than 20 years with either a Bush or a Clinton in the White House.

"I wish we hadn't had a second Bush," Clinton said, getting a laugh. She then added: "You shouldn't vote for or against my mother because of my father."

The famously private Clinton - who does not talk with the media - did not share personal anecdotes or White House memories, instead sticking to policy-based answers. When one student asked her about areas that she disagrees with her mother, she played it safe.

"There are issues I disagree with my mom on, but those are for my kitchen table conversations," she said. *