The press, not to mention millions of Americans, were understandably annoyed by the Hillary Clinton campaign’s misleading, bordering on dishonest, claim she had merely “overheated” Sunday, after she had to be dragged into a van after apparently fainting. The general consensus is that had the incident not been captured on video, the campaign would have lied about the whole thing and quite possibly failed to disclose her pneumonia.
Here we are two days later, and the Clinton campaign is still trying to mislead or downplay the episode. The Hill is reporting that “Clinton’s reluctance to drink water [is] causing tension with her staff.” Politico reported this nugget: “‘She won’t drink water, and you try telling Hillary Clinton she has to drink water,’ said a person in her orbit – who described a frenzied rehydration mission that included multiple bottles of water and Gatorade.” Claiming that her real problem is that she just doesn’t drink enough water is basically “the limited hangout version of that job interview question, where they ask you about your biggest weakness,” noted one wag.
This dehydration story is being reported as if it’s some sort of down low campaign secret, when it’s clearly the narrative the campaign wants to push. Further, Clinton claimed in 2008 that “I drink tons of water. Just as much water as I can possibly drink.”From the Clinton campaign’s perspective it sounds a lot better to say someone just needed a cool glass of water to recover, rather than the awkward truth that her dehydration is one of many symptoms of a serious medical condition that hospitalizes a million Americans every year, kills 50,000, and is considerably more serious if you happen to contract it as a 68-year-old woman.
About two-and-a-half years ago, I was diagnosed with bronchitis and it got progressively worse until I ended up in the hospital for a few days with pneumonia. All in all, it was a six-week ordeal, and throughout most of that I drank a half a gallon of Powerade (Gatorade doesn’t do a sugar-free version) in addition to several glasses of water every single day. Also, I am nearly 30 years younger than Clinton and I do not have her scheduling demands. And still, I was weak to the point that should I have been crazy enough to work all day every day, I could easily have fainted—even though no medical professional would have said I was dehydrated. Believe me, pneumonia is serious business.
Now it’s entirely possible that Clinton’s pneumonia is less serious than mine was. Then again, just because she is said to have mild pneumonia now, doesn’t mean it won’t get worse—this is not a cold. While I’m not her doctor, much less even a medical professional, from what I know there’s no reliable way to say how serious this is at this point. The whole time I had pneumonia the doctors weren’t entirely sure whether it was viral or bacterial in nature and, as it turns out, “the laboratory tests to determine a type of mild pneumonia, in fact, frequently take longer than the disease itself lasts.” This won’t go away after a few days rest so she can hit the campaign trail. And doctors are pointing out that she may not recover until late October.
I suspect that before long the Clinton campaign will move from claiming she’s “powering through” her illness to using it as a pretext for sympathy—and as one of millions who’ve had pneumonia, I’m not entirely without sympathy. However, I have next to no tolerance for dishonesty from public officials, and even less for the Clintons, who are habitually mendacious about things far more troubling than their health. In the meantime, it’s insulting to claim that if Hillary Clinton sips a little Gatorade now and then she’s going to be fine—and for the media to report such a claim as if it’s credible.
