# Hillary just lost the election. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 11, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663 "2016-09-11T16:04:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![Pearl\_Clutching\_Provocateur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pearl\_Clutching\_Provocateur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pearl_Clutching_Provocateur)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/401 "2016-09-12T23:42:48Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > This robot thing is parody, right? > > If not, I hope it gets spread as much as possible. I hope Trump himself suggests it! My sources tell me that at the first debate Trump will pull out a magnet and challenge her to place it against her skin. If it sticks, we will know. :eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![GulfTiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e79b87/32.png) [@GulfTiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GulfTiger)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/402 "2016-09-12T23:46:05Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I know for a fact she bathes in the stuff too. you’ve seen that? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/403 "2016-09-12T23:49:54Z")
> [@Pearl\_Clutching\_Provocateur](#): > > My sources tell me that at the first debate Trump will pull out a magnet and challenge her to place it against her skin. If it sticks, we will know. :eek::eek::eek: A word: aluminum. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/404 "2016-09-12T23:53:09Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > It was very badly handled by her staff. > > Possibly the traditional female role of being Selfless played a role, too: I would be willing to bet that Hillary kept saying “I’m fine” to her staff, thinking she could power through the heat of the day even though fighting off a respiratory infection. (A Good Woman doesn’t stop and let others take care of her–she keeps on taking care of them. Or so says our culture.) At some point the body won’t cooperate no matter how strong the will may be. > > I’m not so sure about this. > > Which is the smarter campaign move: > > A) Announce “the candidate has pneumonia” or > > B) Announce “the candidate had to cancel two events last week due to a mild case of pneumonia, but she’s over it now and is at full strength” …? > > I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought (B) might work out just fine. And of course (A) was guaranteed to have the Alt-Right running around with hair on fire, so why not avoid that if possible? > > What all this _‘it was a mistake not to disclose this to the American People immediately’_ opining ignores, is that pneumonia is a treatable illness that can be largely over with, in a relatively small number of days. (Not in \*all \*cases, of course–but, often enough.) The American People would certainly have a right to immediate disclosure of an _incurable_ illness–sure. Of course. > > But something that will go away with the right course of antibiotics? Not so much. > > Sounds as though your screen name should more properly be “Straws Clutching.” A case of pneumonia renders one _physically incapable_ of being POTUS? Really? How do you figure? The point is Hillary already had a history of not being ‘honest’ and she tried to pass her cough off as having allergy when she has pneumonia ! She can’t afford to be lying when so many people already think she is a liar ! It would had looked a lot better if she came out and said had pneumonia instead of having people making assumptions about her health . Now people are saying she has Parkinson too ! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/405 "2016-09-13T00:00:21Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > A word: aluminum. Nope. If it’s a word it’s “One word: plastics.” Anyway I suspect that she, like many of us who feel committed to our work, denied to herself that it was more than allergies until it got worse. Truth be told announcing it on the eve before 9-11 commemorations would have gotten her blasted as well. No best response only less poor ones. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/406 "2016-09-13T00:02:44Z")
Uh, you do know the allergy thing was a joke, right? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/407 "2016-09-13T00:09:13Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Nope. If it’s a word it’s “One word: plastics.” > > Anyway I suspect that she, like many of us who feel committed to our work, denied to herself that it was more than allergies until it got worse. > > Truth be told announcing it on the eve before 9-11 commemorations would have gotten her blasted as well. No best response only less poor ones. Eh. Just be honest. That’s almost always he best policy. She could still have attended even if she said something about the diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/408 "2016-09-13T00:30:13Z")
I’m not sure that there was any obligation on her part to make some big announcement between Friday evening and Sunday morning that she had a routine short term illness and was prescribed some antibiotics and rest. It shouldn’t be any factor in even a week, much less by the time she is President. Before Friday, as far as we know, it \*was \*allergies, as far as she knew. A long bout of allergy or otherwise related coughing could be the cause of finally getting pneumonia, I think. (some of our medicos can clarify if I’m wrong) So it looks to me like she had allergies, coughed a lot, didn’t rest eat or drink enough and her allergy-inflamed lungs finally got infected. Like others have said once she was there, and started feeling sick, there was no good way to handle it. If she had sat down in the midst of that most solemn memorial with everyone else standing and had aides fanning her and giving her water can you imagine what her opposition could do with that image? She had to wait until she literally was about to keel over and almost, but not quite, made a quiet exit without disrupting the ceremony. Hell I might pass out just from having to stand for an hour and a half in the sun listening to speeches drone on, she just did 2 fundraisers a national security meeting and a press conference before hand. (her reduced schedule…) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/409 "2016-09-13T00:34:16Z")
[quote=ThelmaLou] Let us suppose, for a moment, that everything we have ever heard about Hillary Clinton’s health is true. > [@](#): > > She has had multiple strokes. Also, she has multiple sclerosis. > > She depends upon a stool. > > She has Parkinson’s. And HIV. > > She might or might not have asthma. > > She has one year left to live. > > There are at least two so-called Hillary Clintons. One is a body double. Both wear adult diapers, which accounts for the shape of their garments, but they are not very subtle about it, so that many YouTube users were able to notice and comment. > > She is constantly suffering from seizures, blackouts, falls and collapses. > > She has unspecified heart trouble. > > She has lupus… Well, you see, this is what you get when you have a highly secretive and press averse candidate who tries to hide everything about herself from public view. If she were more forthcoming with her ailments and with her health records it would put the lie (or mistaken presumption) about all these things to rest. Don’t blame the speculators when clues and symptoms all they have to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/410 "2016-09-13T00:49:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Eh. Just be honest. That’s almost always he best policy. She could still have attended even if she said something about the diagnosis. If she had announced that she was sick, while still attending the ceremony, she would have been accused of trying to upstage the 9/11 victims and survivors and of trying to garner undue sympathy and make the event all about her. Then she probably WOULD have made it through without incident. The new narrative would have been that she really wasn’t sick, everyone would be analyzing photos and videos for “proof” that she was faking her illness because she’s such a liar and can’t bear not be center stage. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/411 "2016-09-13T00:52:16Z")
[quote=“Starving\_Artist, post:409, topic:765663”] > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Let us suppose, for a moment, that everything we have ever heard about Hillary Clinton’s health is true. > > Well, you see, this is what you get when you have a highly secretive and press averse candidate who tries to hide everything about herself from public view. If she were more forthcoming with her ailments and with her health records it would put the lie (or mistaken presumption) about all these things to rest. Don’t blame the speculators when clues and symptoms all they have to work with. TL:DR If people are lying about you, its totally your fault. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/412 "2016-09-13T00:59:05Z")
Hmmm… this makes me wonder. If, in the future, we have a female presidential candidate who is NOT post-menopausal (i.e., she’s still menstruating), will she be expected to announce every month when she has her period? And if she conceals this, will she be accused of lying and hiding things that the public has a right to know? I’m guessing that’s a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/413 "2016-09-13T01:11:20Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Hmmm… this makes me wonder. If, in the future, we have a female presidential candidate who is NOT post-menopausal (i.e., she’s still menstruating), will she be expected to announce every month when she has her period? And if she conceals this, will she be accused of lying and hiding things that the public has a right to know? > > I’m guessing that’s a possibility. I don’t know, but I’d much rather know about that than every time Trump gets a festering boil on his ass lanced. But if she declares war on anyone that week we would have to seriously review her rationale. (I kid!) ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/414 "2016-09-13T01:22:52Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > The point is Hillary already had a history of not being ‘honest’ and she tried to pass her cough off as having allergy when she has pneumonia ! She can’t afford to be lying when so many people already think she is a liar ! It would had looked a lot better if she came out and said had pneumonia instead of having people making assumptions about her health . Now people are saying she has Parkinson too ! Oh for fuck’s sake. The coughing fit was early last week, _before she was diagnosed with pneumonia_ on Friday, as has been said multiple times. Since she suffers from seasonal allergies, she assumed it was the reason for the coughing jag. Despite having a temporary illness she powered through and did what she felt obligated to do. And this is, apparently, a horrible crime. Clinton’s the one who hides things even though Trump hasn’t released his tax records _or_ anything resembling a proper medical record. Jesus, the hypocrisy is so blindingly obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/415 "2016-09-13T01:28:41Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > TL;DR If people are lying about you, its totally your fault. Not so much lying as speculating on the evidence, I’d say. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Hmmm… this makes me wonder. If, in the future, we have a female presidential candidate who is NOT post-menopausal (i.e., she’s still menstruating), will she be expected to announce every month when she has her period? And if she conceals this, will she be accused of lying and hiding things that the public has a right to know? > > I’m guessing that’s a possibility. I would think that a ‘post-menopausal candidate’ who didn’t have in her recent history a deep-vein thrombosis, a concussion requiring six months of rehabilitation and special glasses to deal with double vision, a nagging and until recently unexplained cough (with one of the first of the two explanations given - i.e., allergies every Labor Day - being a lie), and the inability to withstand more than an hour and a half in low eighties heat when her older opponent sails through unbothered, then I’d agree that without specific cause for concern she shouldn’t have to release her health records ‘every month’. In Hillary’s case, her health records are perfectly germane and appropriate. People have a right to know if she’s going to pass out from the heat and bonk her head while headed to greet Putin on the tarmac. (To bonk her head yet again, that is. What was the cause the first time? You know, the one that led to the concussion? I forget.) Anyway, it’s perfectly reasonable to look at all this stuff and question the state of Hillary Clinton’s health. It’s also reasonable to look at it simply because of her age. Same with Trump also. When politicians are pushing 70 or are already there it’s important that if they’re going to be elected they will be able to handle the rigors of the job and most likely live out the term in office they’ve been elected to. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/416 "2016-09-13T01:36:06Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Nope. If it’s a word it’s “One word: plastics.” Wowsers! Merkins are seeking a man of steel and get served up a woman of ABS? Armageddon is indeed nigh! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/417 "2016-09-13T01:58:40Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > If she had announced that she was sick, while still attending the ceremony, she would have been accused of trying to upstage the 9/11 victims and survivors and of trying to garner undue sympathy and make the event all about her. > > Then she probably WOULD have made it through without incident. The new narrative would have been that she really wasn’t sick, everyone would be analyzing photos and videos for “proof” that she was faking her illness because she’s such a liar and can’t bear not be center stage. So, how’s her chosen strategy working out for her? Not so good. When your biggest problem is that people don’t trust you, best not to lie and confirm that perception. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/418 "2016-09-13T01:59:40Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Hmmm… this makes me wonder. If, in the future, we have a female presidential candidate who is NOT post-menopausal (i.e., she’s still menstruating), will she be expected to announce every month when she has her period? And if she conceals this, will she be accused of lying and hiding things that the public has a right to know? > > I’m guessing that’s a possibility. If having a period is a disease, then yes. Is it? ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/419 "2016-09-13T02:04:34Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Anyway, it’s perfectly reasonable to look at all this stuff and question the state of Hillary Clinton’s health. It’s also reasonable to look at it simply because of her age. Same with Trump also. When politicians are pushing 70 or are already there it’s important that if they’re going to be elected they will be able to handle the rigors of the job and most likely live out the term in office they’ve been elected to. Remember when H.W. Bush puked on the Prime Minister of Japan? Same kind of thing. Sometimes you just get suddenly, acutely sick without there being any major health problems or grand conspiracies. Both candidates are older, but not too old in comparison to any other Presidents before Obama. Both display unusual vigor and stamina in their day to day lives and have for their entire lives. Anyone could keel over at 50. Unlike Trump though, Clinton’s doctor has released a plausible, legitimate, medical-like, statement about her health and didn’t seem to be trying to downplay anything in her medical history. She believes none of it affects her fitness to serve. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663/420 "2016-09-13T02:05:20Z")
FWIW I do suspect she has [postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2600095/) made worse by the fact that her baseline blood pressure is on the very low normal side. Standing upright for a prolonged period of time, especially when otherwise ill or mildly dehydrated, commonly causes fainting in this syndrome. She tried to tough it through a pneumonia without letting it slow down her schedule at all, declined to share it for a variety of reasons (the optics of drawing attention to herself on the eve of 9-11 or the optics of happening to have an acute illness when there is an ongoing disinformation campaign going on about your health and possibly other reasons too). 20-20 retroscopic vision not the best choice. Honestly though if I had been in her position it would have been the call I would have made too. Meanwhile I doubt anyone thinks that _any_ politician would volunteer that they have an acute illness in the context she was in. Does that play into her narrative as someone who is less than completely honest? Of course. But that perception is, I think, already baked into her numbers. It also plays into the narrative that she is willing to work hard and push herself, maybe harder than she should, in pursuit of what she thinks is important. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-just-lost-the-election/765663.md?page=22)