Posted on 09/14/2016 6:13:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When Hillary Clinton began mapping out her presidential campaign, she knew that clearing the hurdle to become the first woman commander in chief would be paramount. What she didn’t know or fully understand 18 months ago was how her age would work against her in subtle and cruel ways, and how ageism and sexism can combine in a double whammy undermining her candidacy.
Unfounded rumors spread by Donald Trump and his allies about Clinton’s allegedly poor health and lack of stamina found their mark Sunday in a video gone viral that shows Clinton stumbling as aides help her into a waiting car. Her doctor’s statement released several hours later revealed Clinton had been diagnosed the previous Friday with pneumonia, a common and treatable condition, but which takes longer to recover from if you’re over 65; Clinton is 68, soon to be 69.
CNN covered Clinton’s near collapse all afternoon, bringing in Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the network’s chief medical correspondent, to recall Clinton’s 2012 concussion and her history of blood clots. NPR’s Cokie Roberts said on Monday’s Morning Edition that Democrats were discussing “sotto voce” how to replace Clinton as their candidate should that become necessary. Joe Biden is their top choice, she said, and he’s five years older than Clinton with a history of brain aneurysms.
It’s worth pointing out that Trump is 70 and while he doesn’t have pneumonia, he’s not exactly a picture of health. The point is that we as a society give the guys a lot more leeway than we give the women. We’re accustomed to older men in leadership positions. John McCain and Bob Dole were both over 70 when they ran for president. The media didn’t obsess over it, though we rightly scrutinized their vice-presidential picks, and McCain’s choice of an obviously unqualified Sarah Palin cost him votes.
Both these older candidates lost, and the contrast of youthful energy conveyed by their much younger opponents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, contributed to those losses.
If Democrats are saying anything sotto voce, it’s how grateful they are that Clinton isn’t facing Marco Rubio.
The problem Clinton has there is no Golda Meir leading the way for her. The “Iron Lady” of Israel was elected prime minister when she was 70, and she successfully prosecuted the Yom Kippur war when she was 75. She was ageless, and given her age and demeanor, sexless. In the first days of the 1973 war, it was said she smoked 90 cigarettes a day instead of her usual 60.
We think of ourselves as a youthful country even though the U.S. population is aging. We like more recently to elect presidents who are in their prime, in their forties and fifties, and we indulge them in their inexperience. Clinton defies recent history as someone who is highly qualified but struggles to excite and inspire. Bernie Sanders surprised everybody becoming a rock star as a septuagenarian. He even had a doppelganger in the comedian Larry David to connect with voters.
Clinton is on her own to make her way. There is no template for a woman of her vintage. “Ageism is rampant these days, but of course it’s worse for a woman,” says Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. “Why is there more fuss about Hillary’s age than Donald’s? Because an older man looks distinguished,” she says, although that’s not the first adjective one would apply to Trump.
“Older women are invisible,” says Tannen, in the sense they are insignificant in public life. The medical flap sticks to Clinton and becomes “Healthgate” in a way it wouldn’t for a man because it plays into an existing suspicion that a woman in this role is “not quite right for this,” says Tannen.
The point is we’re not sure what to make of an older woman with ambition vying for the most powerful job in the world. Women who support Clinton and are her age or older admire her for her resilience and wonder why she would want to put herself through such a wringer. Younger women seem to regard her as something out of Jurassic Park. They can’t relate to her, and they don’t get Trump either. He’s like a corporate version of the Kardashians.
The real problem isn’t Clinton’s age or her health; it’s her lack of transparency. Millennials embrace transparency as the religion of the internet. People want to know everything, and Clinton is an old school candidate who wants things kept private. But the 90-minute gap on Sunday before her campaign released a statement about what was happening may be the last gasp of privacy for Clinton.
Her campaign announced on Monday that it would be releasing more information about her general health. If there are lessons to be learned from this for Clinton, it’s to heed a health warning and not try to power through, and to let go of that 20th century notion of a zone of privacy.
Her bout of pneumonia has gotten more attention than FDR’s polio or JFK’s multiple ailments at comparable points in their campaigns. If the voters knew more about their health challenges, we might have missed out on their leadership. Clinton needs to convince the voters and the right-wing conspiracy theorists that she doesn’t have some underlying condition that she’s hiding. And she needs to convince the rest of us, and perhaps herself, that at her age she has the wisdom to take a health scare seriously.
Would have left teeth marks on the paint job if not caught on the way down.
Old Eleanor is still alive? Yikes!
Many years ago I was alone with Eleanor in a private room waiting to be interviewed on tv. I have my regrets.
What / who is Elenore Clift? Is she the POS that writes those crappy book summations “Clift Notes”?
Because he never smoked, he never drank, he never did drugs. See the difference. Pretty stark.
I pray for his health and safety!
Hillary Clinton was too sick to refute the claims that she was too sick to be President.
Oh Eleanor, the only reason I know you exist is because of John McLaughlin. May he rest in peace. Watching you stretch reality to its very breaking point was painful.
Small things count big, and I well remember a segment from YOU'RE FIRED where a female intern questioned the choice of water bottles for a meeting made by a male intern. They were too large, and awkward. Trump listened to her then pronounced, "You know, you're right." Then to the hapless male intern, "YOU'RE FIRED."
So, A) That was the game. B) She was right and Trump was right, in the context. I was impressed by his alacrity and decisiveness, even if it was just a show.
Who ya gonna believe, me ? Or your Lyin eyes ??
And now I have to go listen to some Fleetwood Mac
And for that, we thank you !
Billy's six years her junior.
Of course, there was that 500-year-old Incan mummy ...
 Parker in 1948
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| Born | Eleanor Jean Parker (1922-06-26)June 26, 1922 Cedarville, Ohio, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | December 9, 2013(2013-12-09) (aged 91) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Occupation | Actress, Singer |
| Years active | 1941–1991 |
| Spouse(s) | Fred Losee (1943–1944; divorced) Bert E. Friedlob (1946–1953; divorced; 3 children) Paul Clemens (1954–1965; divorced; 1 child) Raymond N. Hirsch (1966–2001; his death) |
| Children | Susan Eleanor Friedlob Sharon Anne Friedlob Richard Parker Friedlob Paul Day Clemens |
Mmmmmm.....the delicious tears of unfathomable sorrow....
Well, if she were healthy you D-Baggers in the Media wouldn’t have to carry her, now would you?
You know, for the longest time I naively believed that Democrats simply had a different world-view than I.....As time has gone on and their masks have slipped I realize they are pure evil.
I agree she’s being paid, but I believe she (like many in the Media, the Dem and GOP Leadership) is being paid by sources other than the ones we see.
I truly believe that the muslim Empire have become like “Hydra” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.....their tentacles are in EVERYTHING and they are passing out Xerxes’ gold like Pez.
Additionally, people like Clift who try to portray themselves as smart are actually blithering idiots. The more they publish obvious lies like this, the more the movement grows because people are SICK AND TIRED of the same old same old.
Thanks in advance to all who post in this thread for not including photos of the Clift creature.
Essentially all of major American journalism is coordinated via the Associated Press. It needs trust busting most of all.
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