WINSTON-SALEM, US - If Senator Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman president in US history, her daughter Chelsea will have an unusual distinction - she'll be the first first daughter to repeat the experience.

But if there's any sign the 28-year-old is daunted by the prospect of a return to the intense public scrutiny she experienced as a teenager in the White House as the daughter of President Bill Clinton, she doesn't let it show.

Until December she had not spoken in public on her parents' policies but then she took leave from a job with a New York hedge fund to campaign for her mother, who trails in a tight race against Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

On Friday, she spoke at what she said was her 123rd college campus, standing in spring sunshine before a crowd of more than 100 students at Salem College, North Carolina, the oldest women's college in the country.

Many of her sentences began: 'My Mom thinks...', 'My Mom believes...', or 'My Mom is passionate about...' and she said: 'I really believe in my Mom...I want my Mom to be my president.'

But her responses, delivered rapidly on subjects ranging from taxation to stem cell research, displayed a grasp of policy detail that left many in her audience stunned.

'My Mom voted against something called Medicare part D and Medicare part D is the so-called prescription drug benefit program that's attached to Medicare...And my Mom voted against it because she didn't think it was a real benefits programme,' she said before explaining Clinton's plans.

DAUGHTERS

Daughters have played a significant role in this year's election. Mr Obama and his wife Michelle have appeared at events with their two daughters, aged nine and six, and the effect is to emphasize the family's youthfulness.

Ms Meghan McCain, 23, the daughter of Mr McCain and his wife Cindy, travels with her father and maintains the mccainblogette.com blog with friends.

It's subtitled 'musings and pop culture from the campaign trail' and its video, text, music references and photos take an irreverent look at a business that candidates and campaign staff take with deadly seriousness.

But Chelsea Clinton is alone in acting as a campaign surrogate, attracting crowds in places her mother does not visit and trying to convince voters and motivate supporters.

By focusing on campuses, she is battling Mr Obama's success in many states in attracting young, educated voters.

Though she grew up in the spotlight, she is reluctant to discuss her life or controversial aspects of her father's presidency. In March, she refused to answer questions about the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal, which led to Mr Clinton's impeachment. He was acquitted by the Senate.

'I do have a private life in New York. I have a dog, a job and a boyfriend that I would like to go back to at some point,' she told an audience at a home in Lexington, North Carolina, late on Friday, when asked if she wanted to go into politics. - REUTERS