The Coconut Story

I promised that this wouldn't be a political blog, but I read a story yesterday about Chelsea Clinton that begs for a response, at least in my opinion.

It seems that Chelsea was stumping for her mom in Maine at Colby College where she told the coconut story. As the New York Times reported, Chelsea reminisced about the time she was about six years old and living in the governor's mansion in Arkansas. She wanted a coconut. Her parents obliged and the family was soon confronted by the classic coconut dilemma: How do you open it?

Chelsea reports that she and her father went out in the driveway and tried slamming the coconut against the asphalt. They hurled it at a few stone walls. Nothing worked. And then her mother appeared with a hammer. The moral of the story: Hilary is good at solving problems, (read that world-problems) which, of course, is why you should vote for her.

First of all, the entire "Vote for my mother," appeal bothers me and I'm not sure why. I know that political children routinely stump for their parents and the concept never bothered me before. Maybe because this one sounds like pleading...Maybe because even Chelsea is part of such a well-oiled machine...Maybe because she actually might have more influence (star power?) than the average child of a candidate...Maybe because my daughter (an avid watcher of The View) reports that Chelsea called both Joy Behar and Barbara Walters to personally ask them to vote for her mother (and then naturally report it on the air)...Maybe because it seems so well rehearsed.

Anyway, the thing that bothers me most, is that it doesn't take a "world-problem" solver to open a coconut. It just takes common sense and perhaps experience with having opened them before. I'm willing to bet that lots of mothers and fathers have come up with the solution and that doesn't necessarily make them qualified to be president. It just makes them parents, willing to do anything for their kids.