SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
Photo: Getty
I had written a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” piece on Donald Trump a few months ago when he had a doozie of a stumble-filled week, but I had never done one about Hillary Clinton because, frankly, she hadn’t earned it.
Now she has.
Wow, what a mess these last few days have been for her. (Any weekend where Donald Trump has the high ground is a bad one for anybody.)
At a Friday fundraiser before an LGBT crowd hosted by Barbra Streisand, Clinton described Trump’s supporters in this fashion:
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
Yipes! Yes, there are racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes and Islamophobes who support Donald Trump (as evidenced not only by their statements but by the fact that Trump re-tweets their statements, particularly those from white supremacists).
But there is an unwritten rule in politics — you can go after your opponent, but never go after your opponent’s voters because you may need them at some point down the line. And “basket of deplorables,” however accurate it might be, is a pretty harsh pronouncement to say on the campaign trail and uncharacteristic of a very cautious candidate. I think the fact that this statement got so much commentary this weekend is because it’s the kind of outrageous comment that we have come to expect from Trump but never from Clinton.
But that was nothing compared to Sunday.
At a 9/11 memorial service on the 15th anniversary of the attacks in New York, Clinton, after 90 minutes there, signaled that she needed to leave early, and what followed was dramatic footage of a frail Clinton having to be helped into her car, appearing to be almost to the point of fainting. As someone who has fainted several times, I know that the culprit is usually dehydration, and that appeared to be the case with Clinton. But it is a disconcerting image when you’re thinking about someone who will lead the country after the next 4 (or 8) years.
Then on Sunday, Clinton’s doctor announced that the candidate is suffering from pneumonia that, believe me, can really knock you for a loop. (I’ve also come down with pneumonia which, in addition to the fainting, makes it sound like I’m a wreck, but Hillary has it too, and she’s running for President, dammit!)
As empathetic as I feel for her (and hope that she recovers soon!), I see two political problems for her with this.
First is that this plays right into the Republicans’ storyline that Clinton is sick and the GOP argument that the country cannot afford to elect a sick person for President. I had mocked Rudy Giuliani’s ranting and raving about Clinton’s health (“Hillary has got a BRAIN TUMOR!!!!”), but this revelation does unfortunately give some meat to their argument.
The second and most disturbing aspect is that this reveals the Clintons’ underlying penchant for secrecy. From all reports, the pneumonia diagnosis was delivered to the candidate on Friday, but it was only announced on Sunday after the wobbly incident at the 9/11 memorial forced their hand. Otherwise, we may never had heard about it. This mindset, I believe, also helped to form their decision behind her using the private server for State Department business, which I am concerned is an issue that will not go away.
Yes, Clinton has a solid (if not comfortable) cushion nationwide polls, but another weekend like this one may put that margin in serious jeopardy.
