Chelsea Clinton Criticizes Bush in N.C.

RALEIGH — Chelsea Clinton returned Monday to North Carolina, telling college students that the world will "breathe a sigh of relief" once President Bush leaves office. Clinton spoke Monday during a town hall meeting with students at North Carolina State University. She later moved on to Peace College in Raleigh to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Clinton told about 250 people at N.C. State that her mother, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, would work to repair the nation's reputation abroad.

"I think the world will breathe a sigh of relief when this president is gone," Clinton said, criticizing Bush for pulling out of various accordings, including the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

She urged the crowd to register to vote and to listen to past debates between her mother and rival Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

She also couldn't avoid questions about her father, good or bad.

An audience member at N.C. State also pressed Clinton to discuss the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clinton declined to discuss her father's relationship with the White House intern, drawing applause when she told the young man that it was none of his business.

Clinton had a similar exchange last week at Butler University.

And in Chapel Hill, she was asked whether a vote for Hillary Clinton was a vote for Bill Clinton.

"Is a vote for Hillary a vote for Bill? No. A vote for Hillary is a vote for Hillary," she said. "I'm really proud of what my father did in the '90s, but I don't think you should vote for or against my mother based on my father."

Also in Chapel Hill, Clinton pinned a light blue ribbon to her blazer in memory of Eve Carson, the UNC student body president who was killed March 5.

"It was always Eve's dream to have a presidential campaign come to campus," said student body vice president Mike Tarrant. But in September, when the school contacted the campaigns, "North Carolina didn't really matter," he said.

"It was a great feeling to kind of see her dream come true."

In response to a question about NASA funding, Clinton said the budgets of many scientific programs have either stayed flat or been cut. She pointed to Bush's veto of stem cell research bills.

"We don't know what we have lost under this administration," she said.

Both Hillary Clinton and Obama have started to campaign heavily in North Carolina in preparation for the state's May 6 primary.

Joe Delpapa, a 19-year-old business major at N.C. State, said the primary gives voters a chance to hear the platforms of the candidates and what they think.

"This'll make history," Delpapa said. "How often will you get to see, this close, a race and see things that really matter?"

Chelsea Clinton also campaigned in North Carolina on Saturday, speaking at the state convention of Young Democrats.

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