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Dayton, Ohio: Chelsea Clinton has finally discovered her voice in public.
Previously a silent figure at her mother's side, the former and prospective First Daughter has hit the campaign trail solo in Hillary Clinton's latest effort to counter Barack Obama's march toward the Democratic nomination.
Senator Clinton has already replaced her campaign manager and dipped into $5 million (Dh18.35 million) of her own funds to replenish her near-empty war chest, as well as deploying her husband Bill as an attack dog - all, so far, to no avail as Senator Obama triumphed in a series of recent primaries.
With defeats in Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday, she is now staking all on victories in Texas and Ohio on March 4 to keep her faltering campaign alive.
And her daughter has reluctantly abandoned her prized privacy to plunge into the fray after it became clear that Obama was sweeping the youth vote.
Ms Clinton, 27, who is on leave from her job with a Manhattan hedge fund, is taking her fight to enemy heartlands - college campuses where "Obama-mania" is rife.
Typical appearance
In a typical appearance, she demonstrated a near-encyclopaedic grasp of her mother's policies during a 90-minute question-and-answer session with hundreds of students at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
The attractive, assured young woman is a far cry from the gawky, awkward 11-year-old with frizzy hair and braces who first blinked in the flashlights when her father began his presidential bid 16 years ago. But although she urged questioners to "ask whatever may be on your minds", the same offer was not extended to the watching media. While the adult children of several other candidates have also lobbied for votes, Ms Clinton, who witnessed her father's private life being exposed in lurid detail, is alone among them in flatly refusing to talk to journalists.
Even a nine-year-old "reporter" for an online children's newspaper was recently rebuffed, if politely, when she tried to ask an innocent question about her father. When schoolgirl Sydney Rieckhoff asked, "Do you think your Dad would be a good First Man in the White House?", she was firmly told, "I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press, and that applies to you, even though I think you're cute."
This defensive stance has caused friction, which erupted 10 days ago when a television reporter suggested Ms Clinton was "being pimped out" by her mother. The journalist was suspended after Senator Clinton complained to his employers.
There was no hint of that controversy recently as Ms Clinton campaigned for her mother at college campuses in Ohio, where opinion polls showed her still holding a comfortable lead.
Dressed in a student-style outfit of jeans and an oversized red sweatshirt, Ms Clinton spoke in clear and relaxed tones.
And instead of the sort of family snippets that Mitt Romney's children or Obama's wife have shared with audiences, Ms Clinton instead demonstrated the "policy wonk" tendencies of her parents.
Only a couple of questions elicited any personal insights.
Asked if she had any intention of running for office herself, she replied, "No", adding: "The whole extent of my political aspiration is to help [my mother] become president."
She also joked that she did not want her old room in the White House back if her mother won the presidency. "I'm 27, I love my parents a lot but I don't want to move back in with them," she said.
Even among Obama supporters in the crowd, it was a well-received performance. "She was well-informed and articulate and a good representative for her mother, but I don't like the idea of the Clintons back in power," said Jimmy Hatfield. His friend Miranda Miller said, however: "After this, I'll be voting for Hillary. Chelsea convinced me."
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