That talent will be on display later this month when Chelsea departs for Stanford University, in California. The cross-country move will mark the first time she has left the protective ““bubble’’ she was born into in 1980 when her father was Arkansas governor. It will also be the ultimate test of a system the Clintons have perfected over 17 years: protected by her adoring parents, friends, teachers and, in recent years, the usually cynical Washington press corps, Chelsea has blossomed in the bubble into an engaging and spirited young woman. Now the First Family’s goal, the president has instructed the Secret Service, is to give Chelsea a ““normal college life.’’ But behind that normalcy–which in high school included friends, dating and extracurriculars like ballet–is a sophisticated apparatus the White House will have to transfer cross-country.
If all goes well, an earpiece and a safari vest (good for hiding radios and weapons without looking stuffy) may be all that distinguishes Chelsea’s agents from the students. The Secret Service has assembled a detail of youthful, casually dressed agents, some equipped with mountain bikes, to accompany Chelsea around the sprawling, palm-studded campus. Agents will also have a room available in her dorm. At the Clintons’ request, the service will also transfer agents Chelsea knows well.
Over the years, Chelsea has managed to buy more freedom by becoming a partner in her own protection. ““If she’s with a friend or on a date she’ll let the detail know where she’ll be and when,’’ says a friend. ““The agents will be there, but there’s not that sensation of being tracked.’’ Not that there won’t be people watching. The Clintons are desperate to make sure that Chelsea’s moving day–Sept. 19–doesn’t turn chaotic. The White House has been working with Stanford officials all summer to figure out how to get Chelsea, her famous parents and their traveling horde on campus without disrupting an emotional day for the other 1,650 freshmen and their families. ““They want to be typical parents,’’ says an aide to the First Lady. ““As much as that’s possible.’’ Presidential aides are working, for instance, to trim down the motorcade so the Clintons can pull up to the dorm like other parents. And like other mothers and fathers, the Clintons are expected to attend orientation seminars and a box lunch with the provost before they, like other family members, will be urged to leave.
That’s when the real fun begins. Chelsea and her classmates will enjoy campus rituals like MuFuUnSun (More Fun Under the Sun, a huge outdoor party) and Running With the Band (in which freshmen dance across campus with the notoriously unruly marching band). After several days of antics and academic counseling, classes begin. Chelsea, who plans to be a cardiologist, hasn’t chosen a major. Her other challenge may be teaching her parents how to use e-mail. The president, despite his soaring rhetoric about the Internet, still corresponds in his left-handed scrawl. Hillary jokes that she can barely turn on a computer.
Once Chelsea has been indoctrinated into the ways of ““The Farm’’ (such as using only the first syllables of words, so that ““frozen yogurt’’ becomes ““FroYo’’), life should settle down. Stanford students are ho-hum about celebrity; Tiger Woods hardly created a stir while he attended. And if Chelsea’s smart, she’ll consult with Michael Breyer, the son of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, about embarrassing dads. When Breyer spoke at his son’s commencement last June, he ended up performing the Macarena (after being goaded by the graduating class). Chelsea can only hope that when graduation rolls around in June 2001, her father–who will by then be an ex-president–will have learned a new tune.
