Assuming that either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is elected president in November and take office in January 2017, next January will see at least one milestone. We will have inaugurated the oldest first-term president in our history.
Under the circumstances does it matter what his or her health is? The prescription medications they’re taking on a regular basis?
My sense is that no one cares but I’ve been wrong so frequently during this cockeyed campaign season I can’t claim to know.
We’d better hope that Tim Kaine (or Mike Pence) is up to the job.
Hillary would be a few months younger than Reagan was when he was inaugurated.
Generally Hillary’s health looks poor. The coughing fits, the petit mal seizures, the drunkenness – not good. She can’t even seem to climb a few stairs these days without being helped up by two people. (See pics from this weekend for that.)
Then there were Huma’s emails from State, which mentioned that Hillary had to be reminded of what to say repeatedly because she couldn’t keep things straight, got easily confused, etc. And that was several years ago at State, it’s unlikely that age has improved any of those conditions.
She’s being propped up and put forward more as a front for Clinton, Inc. than as Hillary Clinton. She’s more FDR in 1944 or Reagan in 1984 than, say, Reagan in 1980, who was fiery and full of energy. I don’t even think she’s in as good a shape as those two were in 1944 or 1984.
The amazing thing is that this is all out there right in the open, and the press won’t discuss any of it. The petit mal seizure footage makes its way around the interwebs, the drunkenness is apparent a great deal of the time to anyone that grew up around drunks (I did), Huma’s emails are a matter of public record, etc.
But the coverage of all this is en passant at best – a mention of Hillary’s drinking contest with McCain here, or a reporter mentioning that Hillary really likes to hammer back shots there. It’s all part of the usual for the times, though – patterns cannot be recognized unless they meet the overall narrative, and the narrative this year is that Hillary is inevitable, because we need to let in ten million Muslim refugees to genitally mutilate their daughters to show America is with Team Feminism, or some such bullshit.
Trump, on the other hand, looks pretty damned robust, and not just for a man that age. He also looks and acts like a damned lunatic. He’s not crazy, as the media was trying to make the case for last week, he’s just flighty and full of himself.
The problem with either of these two is that at their ages health can decline rapidly from even minor issues. Illnesses that are shaken off at 25 can linger and wear one down at 70. I’ve seen this in family & friends as they’ve gotten older, and I imagine everyone else here has, too.
A few years ago I looked back at the age of nominees for President of the two major parties. (Hillary is the oldest Dem nominee since around 1872, if memory serves.) It was kind of striking how so many of the Presidents were men in their fifties, but it made sense after thinking about it. And really it’s a job for someone in their fifties or early sixties. Once you get past that health issues can really impact one’s abilities.
Of course, given the for-shit candidates we get these days that probably doesn’t make much of a difference. But it’s still good to know that a particular person is ultimately in charge. If Hillary gets elected, she is unlikely to do much, which means that her staffers will probably be making all of the decisions. (Bill is too old and in too ill of health himself to take over. Besides, he’ll have more interns to schlong in the closets.)
So here I will reiterate my prediction from around 2008 or so. I said that Bush had been bad, Obama would be worse, and whoever followed Obama would be worse still. Things are looking good for my prediction!
Some of the episodes appear to have been petit mal seizures but one of them was rather clearly something else. Behaviors not typical of petit mal seizures.
Only last week? I think they’ve been making that case for months.
That’s my point, though, she’s got several things going on, none of them good.
I might think the drunkenness was actually something to do with health or meds, except I’ve seen too many stories and allusions through the years to her really REALLY liking to hammer them down. And given her marital situation, who could blame her? So I’m going with my gut, which sees lots of those big sweeping gestures and slightly altered speech patterns (occasionally veering into full slurring), and say, drunk.
I also suspect that all of this is why she doesn’t do much in the way of press conferences. When was the last one, now? Eight months ago, is what I saw from a reporter the other day. Trump can’t wait to get in front of the press and run his mouth, and they won’t let her do so. I’ll let people decide for themselves which is worse, but it’s really a Scylla and Charybdis situation.
Last week they started parading various psychologists around to say “Trump crazy!” They were trying it not as a layman thing, but as a “medical” “diagnosis” by “professionals”. Proving that the whole thing was scripted, various Dems in Congress started calling for Trump to be tested by “professionals” – of their choosing, no doubt. Also I’ll note that they weren’t calling for Hillary to be tested.
Journo-list may be dead, but something like it is still alive and well.
Went to the site that claimed it was a Youtube of her having a seizure. That was not a seizure. Not interested in looking at all of them. The chances of this being disinformation seem a lot higher than it being a real seizure, certainly based upon what is being declared a seizure. Anyway, a good history and physical is a good idea for every candidate methinks, just like seeing tax returns. (Her bigger issue is the anticoagulant she is on from what I can tell from the public record.)
I have not seen any evidence of “crazy” behavior from Trump, just bizarre and stupid stuff that mostly seems centered on his need for attention and need to be on top. Traveled a lot on Friday and Saturday and someone suggested Hillary’s best strategy would be to go tour the National Parks and let Trump do all of the talking.
Steve
I agree with everything in your comment, steve.
Well at least this will be the last, dying gasp of the Boomer generation. Way to close it out with the best of your cohort!
Seriously though, I wish I could say my generation of political leaders was any better, but so far they are just as bad. Rubio? Cruz? Haley? Although there are a few in Congress with actual character.
I’ve not followed the health issues too closely, but the problem here is that we have a de facto two-party system, which doesn’t recognize that the most important decisions were made several months ago. If we were serious about a physical or tax returns or “natural born citizen” status, these issues would be aired well before there were two left. Without doing so, its just a race to the bottom:
So and so has problem X, well at least he/she isn’t that other scoundrel. And remember when that party nominated a person with that problem somewhat like X? The nerve of those bastards.
I guess to answer the post’s question, I’m not sure it matters to me. I’ve a whole lot of information to inform my choices, much more than I would say a hundred years ago.