My coverage of the presidential candidates and their children continues. This time, it is with none other than Chelsea Clinton. Though Chelsea has the most campaign experience of the entire stock of candidates’ offspring, she has always been reserved about speaking to the press. In fact, she's never granted an interview.
Chelsea, from what I saw and heard, simply wants to support her mother at this crucial time. She is passionate about her mother’s quest, the social improvement she believes her mother can achieve for the country, and the overall well being of the world. I have been told by those who have seen Chelsea lecture publicly that she is gifted to the point that she could hold office herself one day -- if she were so inclined. Needless to say, I was sensitive to Chelsea’s reluctance to speak to media, yet intrigued over the opportunity to gain a closer look.
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By Ann Curry, NBC News Anchor
She was stunningly beautiful, this 18-year-old girl lying on the operating table.
We knew she had been brutally raped. Only today did we find out even that was not the worst of it. She had just turned 17 when the soldiers attacked, killing her mother and father as she watched.
Even now, two years later, she says, "It was not possible for me to mourn my parents because I myself was almost dead."
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By Anthony Galloway, NBC News producer
By the looks on some of the players' faces, "What are you doing to be green?" might have been one of the strangest questions asked during Super Bowl media day. (Although when another reporter asked, "What are your biggest pet peeves?" we didn't feel so bad.)
Correspondent Simran Sethi and I traveled to the University of Phoenix stadium to talk to players and the NFL's environmental coordinator about the Super Bowl's expanded effort to be more environmentally conscious.
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By Maria Menounos, NBC News contributing correspondent
I flew from New York (having finished my duties on the Today Show Wednesday) to Columbia, South Carolina to interview Sarah Huckabee and Meghan McCain. I had been efforting the candidates' kids for a few weeks and finally started getting responses.
I sat with Sarah Huckabee in the boardroom of the Courtyard Marriott. The conference room was a mini-headquarters of sorts for her, her brother David, and a few campaign staffers. She was definitely tired, but she managed to give us a lot of time.
The candidates' kids have been very visible in this campaign, more so than we’ve ever seen -- and all in very different roles. Sarah is the national field director for her dad’s campaign and Meghan chose a less official role-- she started a blog to document her journey for those curious about the process. Both have chosen very public roles unlike the less-public Chelsea Clinton.
Why? I think we live in a time where there is unprecedented access to information, via the Internet and sites like YouTube and My Space. In this particular campaign, that access is helping connect these candidates with the masses, particularly, the younger voters. It humanizes the candidates and allows the public to see real moments... and to see that campaign kids are kids just like us. The young people relate to other young people, allowing a better connection with the parent. It may be the reason why so many are interested and engaged in this race than previous races.
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By Mike Taibbi, NBC News correspondent
Editor's note: Mike Taibbi filed this while on the road this week with Rudy Giuliani in Ft. Myers, Florida. His report airs tonight on the broadcast.
Rudy Giuliani was beaming, and with good reason. He’d just finished the second of six stops during a long day of his Florida bus tour, this one a town meeting in the megachurch centerpiece of the Shell Point senior citizens complex, and the place had been packed with people who sure sounded like supporters. One of them, an enthusiastic woman named Bonnie Raymo, sounded like she’d been briefed in detail on the 63-year-old former New York mayor’s "late start" strategy of launching his campaign with a Florida win while his opponents spent their ammo in a circular firing squad before getting to Florida, none of them the clear leader and all of them weakened enough to cede the front page to a new lead story: Rudy!
"It seems like he’s putting all his eggs in this basket, (but) he’s trying everywhere," Bonnie said, "and it has been unpredictable for everyone. And, the polls are all wrong. I think he knows how to operate…and he’s the one who’s going to beat Hillary!"
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By NBC local journalist in Iraq*
"Wake up, it's snowing! Don't miss the view!" Those were my 13-year-old niece's words when she called me early this morning.
I felt pleasure and joy in her words, jumped out of my bed and ran to the window. It was much more beautiful than can be described; a scene I have not seen before in my lifetime in Baghdad.
My family used to call my niece Snow White because she has pale skin, very blue eyes, and dark hair – plus she was a fan of the cartoon. So today she was especially pleased, because for the first time she felt what the taste of snow was really like.
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| AP |
| An Iraqi man and his child enjoy light snow fall in Baghdad on Friday. |
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Editor's note: The following was filed by the NBC News White House team traveling with the President in the Middle East.
The White House team had a unique experience today. We got to ride with the President on board Marine One as he flew from Ramallah to Bethlehem. The press often tags along on Air Force One, or some of the accompanying press planes. Rarely, however, do we get the chance to fly in the President’s personal chopper, seeing him in a more relaxed mood as he moves from one set of meetings to another.
Mr. Bush arrived in the Holy Land on Wednesday, trying to nudge the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to go back to negotiations in an effort to find solutions to issues that have so far derailed all the previous peace processes.
Following his meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Bush headed to one of Christianity’s holiest sites: The Church of the Nativity, the place where Christ is believed to have been born. We joined the President in Ramallah for his 20-minute flight as he made his way to the biblical town.
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By Andy Franklin, NBC News senior producer
In the end, the New Hampshire Democratic primary was a close race with a clear winner. Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama, 39% to 36%. But the outcome was a surprise -- an “upset” and a “comeback” -- in part because of the expectations created by the polls, commentary and press coverage in the days leading up to the primary, much of it wrongly predicting a double-digit margin of victory for Obama. The "experts" got it wrong, but it was hardly the first time.
The most famous case in point: the 1948 election of Harry Truman, a victory predicted by virtually no one except Truman himself. That year’s false expectations were immortalized in the Chicago Tribune’s famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline, held aloft on election night by the beaming president-elect himself. But the Tribune wasn’t alone. Truman’s expected political demise was conventional wisdom in the fall of 1948. Respected pollster Elmo Roper was so sure Republican Thomas Dewey would win he actually stopped polling in September -- almost two months before the election. That October, Newsweek published a poll of 50 of the nation’s “leading political writers.” All of them — every single one — predicted a Dewey victory. Dewey himself, a New York governor who had been running for president since 1940, was so sure 1948 would be his year that he ran an overcautious, overconfident, low-key campaign that never caught fire. Meanwhile, Truman was giving ‘em hell, criss-crossing the country, drawing ever larger and more enthusiastic crowds at one whistle-stop after another. Something was happening out there, and almost nobody saw it coming -- certainly not the political and media intelligentsia of the time.
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