The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination was in full swing in New Hampshire earlier this year when Chelsea Clinton began to branch out on her own as an eye-catching cheerleader for her mother’s campaign.

Arriving at a meeting in Manchester in January, Chelsea was greeted by a gaggle of Hillary Clinton supporters who were patently overawed by the smiling young woman who was shaking hands and autographing leaflets.

“Hey, Hillary, how do you like campaign-ing?” shouted one excited supporter, muddling the daughter with her mother. The younger Clinton paused, and gave a quiet smile. “I’m Chelsea,” she said, and everyone giggled.

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It was a mistake that in one sense was easy to understand. Most Americans remember Chelsea Clinton as an awkward adolescent in braces who was a retiring, near-mute first daughter during Bill Clinton’s White House years.

Yet the Chelsea who has been shaking up her mother’s campaign could scarcely be further removed from the gawky teen-ager who was once viciously derided by Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio rabble-rouser, as the “White House dog”.

At campaign meetings on university campuses across the country, student audiences have been gasping at the confident, articulate, personable spokeswoman who has been singing her mother’s praises in more than 20 states.

“Yeah,” wrote a student blogger in South Carolina after Chelsea appeared at his college. “Intelligent, nice voice, sexy. She’s really blossomed into a hot woman.”

In a presidential campaign filled with surprises, Chelsea Clinton has sprung one of the most intriguing. She has emerged from the shadow of her famous parents to carve out her own political identity as both a devoted and persuasive surrogate for her mother; and – just maybe – as a dynasty’s next best hope.

At primaries in Texas and Ohio this week, Hillary Clinton faces what may prove her final chance to dislodge Barack Obama from Democratic favour and revive Bill Clinton’s slumping hopes of returning to the White House as first laddie.

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