Yesterday on Fox And Friends, Maureen Dowd, columnist for The New York Times, commented on the collapse of Hillary Clinton at the 9/11 Memorial over the weekend. It was a medical episode that led to her 90-minute disappearance from public view, with speculations abound, but not before video footage showed the former first lady stumbling into her van due to overheating and dehydration. Bill Clinton even said that this happened before. Yet, it was all due to her pneumonia diagnosis from the Friday before the memorial event. Her campaign never told the press. And because her campaign never told the press, even avoiding a trip to the hospital to avoid any leaks of her medical condition, we have this rather unnecessary media merry-go-round, where her surrogates are trying to cast her as anything but, old, tired, and sick. The fact is that she’s all three of those things.
Yet, back to Dowd, she quoted Clinton’s problem by citing the words of former Obama adviser David Axelrod, “It’s not about health, it’s about stealth,” a point that the Clinton campaign seems to be missing since they’re really shoving the women “power through it” and she’s not decrepit right down our throats. No one is going to buy it.
Clinton’s parasitic attachment to secrecy stems back to her days as the first lady of Arkansas, according to Dowd, but got worse when she came to Washington after the 1992 election [Hyperlink is mine]:
.@NYTimesDowd: Trump has his wall, but Hillary has a wall around her that gets higher and higher pic.twitter.com/4q0NKahiuz
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) September 13, 2016
It’s a microcosm of her problem, which is when a relatively mundane problem comes up; she stonewalls, and is defensive. It’s like Trump has his wall, but she has a wall around her that gets higher and higher. And then, the press and her foes go into a frenzy because they can’t get the truth. And there are appearing and disappearing records, and then it snowballs into something that it never needed to be in the first pace.
Sure, there might have been some soft digs at her for being sick. It’s the state of our politics today, but telling us really would’ve been a nothing-burger. Skipping the 9/11 Memorial due to this illness, though, again, bound to be criticized by some—wouldn’t have been the massive fallout that has ensued over keeping the illness secret. Instead, she tried to keep this hidden, and it has injected new life into the narratives that she’s untrustworthy and dishonest. Not the best thing when you haven’t fought off the latest on the emails and the Clinton Foundation.
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When you’ve lost a prominent New York Times columnist, who notes the absurd lengths Clinton goes to keep minutiae details hidden, you know you have a problem.
Yes, it was an avoidable trip up, certainly not one you make with less than 60 days before Election Day, and one that highlights all of the criticisms that have been lobbed your way since day one of this campaign no less. Nevertheless, not really feeling bad about it. Anything that hurts Clinton politically is good. In the meantime, Trump can attack Clinton on the emails, the foundation, calling his supporters deplorable, and tout how this race is becoming closer by the day. Republican chances of retaining the Senate have also increased.
Clinton, on the other hand, and her folks, have to now convince voters that she’s one vivacious lady who doesn’t need a walker or a scooter to get around without falling.
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