CNN/AP: Sen. Clinton apologizes to Chelsea for work comment

[DeepModem Mom]

Sen. Clinton apologizes to Chelsea for work comment
Monday, May 15, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- After telling an audience that young people today "think work is a four-letter word," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she apologized to her daughter.

"I said, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to convey the impression that you don't work hard,"' Clinton said Sunday in a commencement address at Long Island University. "I just want to set the bar high, because we are in a competition for the future."

Clinton spoke to more than 2,000 graduates days after she criticized young people at a gathering of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. There she said young people have a sense of entitlement after growing up in a "culture that has a premium on instant gratification."

The senator said that her daughter, Chelsea, phoned to complain after learning about the comments. The 26-year-old was hired in 2003 by McKinsey & Co. as a consultant, reportedly for a six-figure salary. She received a master's degree from Oxford University after graduating from Stanford University in 2001.

"She called and she said, 'Mom, I do work hard and my friends work hard,"' Clinton said Sunday....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/15/clinton.apologize.ap/index.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Good for Hillary. Comin' clean. FDR said all sorts of things that ...

bugged his kids and never apologized.

[devilgrrl]

2. If she's referring to the Bush twins, then yes...

WORK is a four letter word.

[onehandle]

5. For them BEER is a four letter word.

The twins seeing nothing wrong with four letter words.

[elehhhhna]

3. It was a divisive, mean spirited thing to say anyway...sounded like

a Reep.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. "Young people today"

Anything that follows that phrase should be ignored, and anyone who uses it should be ashamed.

[RaRa]

6. I'm no fan of McKinsey

or some of the work they do, but I know they work their "young people" hard.

[KurtNYC]

16. I used to acuse them, kiddingly, of taking what we said,

turning it into a PowerPoint deck and sending us an invoice.

[BigDDem]

7. OK everybody!!!

Time to pile on Hillary.

"Im not voting for her because she said the thing about the four-letter word!"

[Kittycat]

8. I happen to agree with her.

I know nothing of Chelsea's work, but I do agree with the thought process of Teens and recent college grads, in that they expect life to be handed to them and to be easy. I put myself through school, and worked hard, while others just sat back and blamed everyone for things that didn't happen the way they expected. My thought, get off your butt and make it happen - no one is going to just hand it to you :)

[architect359]

10. I agree with your work ethic because I follow it too

Nonetheless, from my point of view, the older generation will always scold the younger generation for not being as hard working. After this generation is dead and gone, I suspect that Chelsea's generation will be saying the exact same thing to the following generation. :) Anyway, this is sort of coming from hearing people from my great grandparents era talk about the generation following theirs, and my grandparents' generation (including my grandparents) talk about my parents' generation, and so forth. I think that things do get "easier" and more "convenient" with more better tool sets to get work done. It just that the times are always a-changin'. Or maybe we're all just getting progressively lazier! :D

[Kittycat]

15. I agree.

Of course you walked to school in 5 feet of snow, they didn't have plows and cars back then Grandpa ;)

[hootinholler]

17. Uphill...

Both ways.

:evilgrin:

-Hoot

[gratuitous]

9. This has been said since . . .

Well, since Hillary was a young person. Just because every person doesn't immediately become an investment banker upon graduation from a prestigious university and start pulling down a six- or seven-figure salary doesn't mean they aren't making a positive contribution to society.

It was said in the 1960s, and apparently needs to be said again today: A person's worth isn't measured by their salary, their possessions or their bank account. You used to know that, Mrs. Clinton. And somehow the world continues to spin on its axis and life goes on, even if we're not all getting wealthy trading cattle futures.

[reichstag911]

11. I just wish I'd won the genetic lottery...

...like poor Chelsea, 26 years old and making six figures. Funny, having graduated from Wharton, but not being from the "right" stock just hasn't done the trick for me. Higher education -- another myth.

[StellaBlue]

20. AfuckingMEN

I have a masters degree from the UK's second-best English department, been working since age 15, done journalism, proofreading, editing, contributing articles, legislative aide, HTML, tons of volunteer stuff.

Job? Anyone?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My previous jobs since college have included: waitress, liquor store clerk, bookseller, admin. That's it.

I am going TODAY to sign up for the temping pool at the local university, where, ironically enough, I got my BA.

Bah. Humbug.

This whole thing just really pissed me off. I fucking HATE the oligarchy.

[noonwitch]

12. There are always a group of young people who don't want to work

I have one cousin, aged 20, who is a total slacker. It's an attitude thing, and the fact that his parents aren't making him pay rent. He doesn't go to school, he has no legal employment. He has had a series of food service jobs that he always ends up quitting after a couple of weeks because it's too hard of work for too little money.

I used to drive a mentally challenged (he's about 85 on the Weschler, which really is not that impaired) guy to church every week (he doesn't go there anymore, but I still keep in touch with him). He had a lot of issues, and received SSI for his disability. I still encouraged him to do something, even if it was volunteer work through the Goodwill, because it was good for him to be involved in something in the community. He told me work was a 4 letter word, and I let him have it, albeit in a nice way. I told him the car I drove him to church in, the food I bought for him in order to teach him some cooking skills, and everything I have came from hard work, and he should never denigrate the value of work.

[ShortnFiery]

13. One Word = Pandering n/t

[AndyTiedye]

14. Every Generation Accuses the Next One of Being Lazy

I suspect this has been going on since we first developed language, if not longer.

[Solon]

18. Actually, I remember reading some texts from...

either Ancient Greece or Rome, and they were talking about the depravities and laziness of the youth of that day and how they will cause collapse of society due to no morals, shit like that. Of course, except for the language differences, the complaints are the same throughout history to today. I'm sure you would find the same type of texts in Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, Ancient Sumeria, etc.

[liberalhistorian]

24. Yes, it has been, and I'm truly, utterly disgusted

that she's made such pandering, freeperish remarks worthy of a clueless, ignorant, mean-spirited repub. Many younger people I know work very hard, most had to work their way through college. Unlike her, they didn't have parents who could comfortably afford to send her to college so that she didn't have to work her way through, so who the hell is she to be making comments like that? She's part of the same senate that has drastically cut federal college financial aid to the point where hundreds of thousands of those "youngsters" she so denigrates will not be able to go to college unless they want to spend twenty years working their way through.

And this is an old, old, old refrain. Every single generation says it about the younger generation, they have since the first cavemen organized into groups. I'm really disgusted to see her fall into that bullshit.

[union_maid]

25. Student loans alone are killing young people's hopes

Getting old is no picnic and retirement is a little scary because of money issues, but I wouldn't want to be young right now, I don't think. We at least thought anything was possible. OK, maybe a lot of us were wrong, but now it's like you can't win. You get enough education to be competitive in this world and you're likely saddled with student loans that are very hard to pay. Where we live, all the young people are leaving because of housing prices. My kids can't leave so they live upstairs from me. They work very hard. I'm delighted to have the adult kids and the grandchildren around, but the American dream it is not.

[Lars39]

19. WTF has Chelsea personally got to complain about

when she starts out of the gate making more per year than most of won't ever make,even after 20+ years in the same field? I'm glad she's sticking up for her age-group, but it irks me to no end when those that have never had even a rough patch financially gripe about how hard they work.
It smacks of 'boot-strapping'.

[aden_nak]

21. Hillary hasn't been making any fans amongst younger voters.

It seems like every time she opens her mouth she does something to lose the youth vote just a little bit more. It's something I've noticed for years now. And it's a shame.



A shame that she thinks that way.

[fujiyama]

22. Looks like

Clinton is trying to undo all the hard work that was done in the last election to get younger people out to vote.

First it was her 'jihad' against video games, now this...She should stay in the senate. I don't think she is capable of getting a broad coalition of voters. She's not her husband. That's for sure (who also did great in '92 among younger voters).

[woo me with science]

23. She apologized only to Chelsea?

What about the entire generation she insulted?

[iconoclastNYC]

26. Every democrat i know is disapointed by Hillary Clinton

And I live in New York and a lot of my friend are women.