# Could Hillary be too sick to run for/serve as president? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 23, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251 "2015-09-23T00:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/61 "2015-09-25T20:41:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You’re not actually under the illusion that PUMA was composed of Clinton supporters, are you? [Depends on who you ask.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_United_Means_Action) > [@](#): > > PUMA’s founders state that the group originated out of online comments of a group of Clinton supporters on a pro-Clinton blog, The Confluence, which was created by New Jersey biochemist and former John Edwards supporter Riverdaughter, who had been recently banned from a pro-Obama liberal blog. That sounds too familiar for comfort. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/62 "2015-09-25T21:27:36Z")
So, another presidential election cycle, another book demonstrating that the leading Democratic candidate is entirely unfit to hold office. I’m sure if Joe Biden has to step into the race for any reason, there’s a already a book ready to go proving that he’s a traitorous mother-raping alien lizard creature. The only question here is why anyone is surprised. This ruthless demonizing of the Democratic candidate has been going on [at least since the 2000 election](http://www.amazon.com/Al-Gore-A-Users-Manual/dp/1859848036), although the Swift Boaters really turned it into an art form against Kerry, and of course the black Kenyan Muslim got it even more viciously. It’s really amazing when you think about it, because this is how certain factions conduct national politics in a major nation. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/63 "2015-09-25T21:30:14Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I am confused by these arguments. I thought when I posted this OP I was asking a serious question about a candidate. I didn’t think it would be any different than asking about the health issues of Trump, or Carson or Sanders or Biden. Yet many people here are equating this discussion to thinks like the Vince Foster conspiracy. Any information you read about the Clintons that comes from a ring-wing book instead of the news media is equivalent to the Vince Foster conspiracy. It’s impossible to believe that anybody would ask it as a serious question, especially somebody who regularly posts in Elections. And you could have and should have googled Ed Klein’s name before you posted, not to mention remembered that the New York Post is a right-wing publication run by Rupert Murdoch. Real news is everywhere; conspiracies are spread by whispers. Health issues are a legitimate issue. I think myself that Clinton’s age is a concern and that is true about Sanders and Biden as well as Bush. But a series of strokes and other specific conditions hidden from the whole world except people who talk to Ed Klein? That’s nonsense and everybody who understands the modern world should understand that it’s nonsense. I say it’s conspiracy theory and I say to hell with it. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/64 "2015-09-25T22:16:03Z")
> **[Did Hillary Clinton start the Obama birther movement?](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/23/donald-trump/hillary-clinton-obama-birther-fact-check/)** > > Call it ricochet politics. First, a questioner at a New Hampshire rally for Donald Trump repeats the lie that President > [@](#): > > It’s an interesting bit of history that the birther movement appears to have begun with Democrats supporting Clinton and opposing Obama. That’s where I got my illusion. Is politifact unreliable? > [@Chronos](#): > > You’re not actually under the illusion that PUMA was composed of Clinton supporters, are you? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/65 "2015-09-25T22:27:29Z")
That politifact article links to a [Factcheck.org](http://Factcheck.org) article that also asserts it originated in the Clinton “camp” but not her campaign. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/66 "2015-09-25T22:48:41Z")
It appears to have originated with some rogue volunteers and not with Hillary or her official campaign. Although it’s hard to tell whether it didn’t originate more or less concurrently from the Republican side, as Jim Geraghty is on record as having raised the issue in the _National Review_ in June, 2008, and Jerome Corsi’s ridiculous smear book came out on August 1, nearly four weeks before the Democratic convention, and was presumably written before or around the same time as the birther conspiracy was first raised by the _National Review_. In any case, there’s no evidence that Hillary herself or her campaign had anything to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/67 "2015-09-25T22:50:52Z")
I never said it did. No one here said it came from her or her campaign. In fact, I said exactly the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/68 "2015-09-25T23:11:46Z")
Right, I have no argument with anything you said, just providing some additional info. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/69 "2015-09-26T13:56:12Z")
It originated from people who claimed to be supporting Clinton. I still maintain that said people were not actually supporting her, but were merely pretending to in an effort to fracture the Democratic Party, just like Limbaugh was urging. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251/70 "2015-09-26T15:42:27Z")
Well, I think that when a couple of well regarded fact checking groups agree with me and you merely have a conspiracy theory it’s rather bold to say that I am the one operating under an illusion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-hillary-be-too-sick-to-run-for-serve-as-president/732251.md?page=3)