By Leon Hadar.
THERE was a time when most Americans didn’t know, and in most cases, couldn’t care, about the medical problems of their presidents or for that matter, of the leading presidential candidates.
Franklin D Roosevelt – who won four presidential elections and led the United States out of the Great Depression into a military victory in World War II – was diagnosed with polio at the age of 39, leaving him with permanent paralysis from the waist down. He was unable to stand or walk without support and was confined to a wheelchair during his 16 years in office.
While FDR’s bout with polio was known before and during his presidency, the extent of his paralysis, and in particular, his inability to stand or walk, was kept from public view. The journalists at the time collaborated with the White House in covering up the president’s medical problems, including his diagnosis with congestive heart failure during his last term in office. In fact, there were only two or three pictures of FDR in a wheelchair.
Another popular American president, John F Kennedy – who always seemed to be vibrant and flamboyant – was secretly afflicted with many medical problems, including Addison’s disease, that his aides, with the assistance of the press, were able to conceal from the public.
Throughout his political career and his presidency, JFK was taking steroids and other drugs to ward off the symptoms of Addison’s disease, which led him to collapse twice during public appearances. Most historians agree that a public disclosure of his health problems would have kept him from running for president.
And the list of US presidents and presidential candidates with health problems is quite long: It includes President Woodrow Wilson who was incapacitated by a stroke; President Grover Cleveland who went through cancer surgery; and more recently, President Ronald Reagan who apparently suffered from Alzheimer’s disease during his last months in office. Again, like in the cases of FDR and JFK, most Americans weren’t informed about their president’s deteriorating medical conditions.
And then there was the first American president to die in office. But very few Americans remember the name of the ninth president of the United States (1841), William Henry Harrison, who died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.
President Harrison was 68 years old when he was elected, the oldest person to run for the White House until Ronald Reagan (68) and this year’s two presidential nominees, Donald Trump (70) and Hillary Clinton (68).
As the cliche goes, 68 may be the new 58, and unlike in the day of President Harrison, most forms of pneumonia aren’t life threatening anymore. So when Mrs Clinton, following several days of recurring cough, went to her doctor’s clinic, near her home in Chappaqua, New York, and was diagnosed by Lisa Bardack, her personal physician, with pneumonia, she probably should have done what any other person, especially one in the late 60s would do: Take a break from her hectic presidential campaign and rest for a few days, take antibiotics, drink a lot of tea and chicken soup, until recovering. Which is exactly what Dr Bardack advised her to do.
In fact, the notion that one of the most powerful women in the world was no different than you and me, and that she sometimes gets sick and goes to the doctor, could have helped Hillary deal with one of her main challenges of the campaign: That she was perceived by many voters as being too aloof, unable to connect with your Average Joe, and exuding a sense of entitlement, that she was somewhat better than most of us.
But instead, the Democratic presidential nominee and her close aides decided to respond to her health problem in the same way they seem to deal with other problems: By covering it up. But unlike in the cases of FDR and JFK, Hillary didn’t have a friendly press corps on her side who would be willing to collaborate in the cover-up.
Reverting to that modus operandi may have made some political sense. The presidential election was two months away, and the latest public opinion polls were indicating that the lead she had over her Republican opponent since the end of the Democratic Nomination Convention was evaporating.
If anything, Mr Trump and his political surrogates were pointing to pictures that appeared online that showed Security Service agents helping Mrs Clinton walk during a stop in the campaign as well as to her recurring cough, and hinting that Hillary may have some mysterious illness, insisting that she doesn’t have the mental and physical “stamina” required for anyone who wanted to become the leader of the free world.
So worried that staying at home to recover from her pneumonia would play into the hands of her political rival, Mrs Clinton didn’t heed her doctor’s advice and decided to continue with her gruelling campaign schedule that would have left a 20-year-old kid exhausted. That included a televised discussion on national security on NBC News; a major fundraiser event and a news conference in New York; and attending the 9/11 commemoration ceremony on Sunday.
But something had to give. After feeling dizzy and overheated during the 9/11 memorial ceremony Mrs Clinton left abruptly. Later on, an iPhone video showed her stumbling and then collapsing, as Security Service agents were helping her into a black van.
The Democratic presidential nominee then went to recuperate at her daughter Chelsea’s apartment in Manhattan. And later she and her aides admitted that she was ill and informed the press that she would be cancelling her planned campaign events and would spend the next few days recovering from her ailment.
But the damage to her campaign was already done. The video showing her trembling and her knees buckling went viral and was broadcast 24/7 on cable news networks. The Donald did wish Hillary a speedy recovery, but his campaign aides couldn’t believe their political luck: Consistent media coverage that showed his Democratic opponent literally collapsing and accusing her once again of trying to cover up her problems. Her aides apologised for not being “transparent” enough, but pundits were employing another term: Lying.
While very few political observers in Washington are taking seriously the rumours that Mrs Clinton’s media problems may force her to drop out from the race, there is no doubt that the latest incident helped accentuate the main elements in the Republican narrative: That she was not telling the truth and that she projected weakness.
All of this was taking place against the backdrop of other problems that have been inflicting Mrs Clinton’s election campaign, including the continuing focus of the media on the scandal involving the use of a private Internet server when she was Secretary of State, and her political and financial ties to the Clinton Foundation.
Indeed, every day there seems to be a new media report about the e-mails she sent and received. WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange has hinted that his organisation was planning to publish soon more material exposing Mrs Clinton’s misconduct.
And Mrs Clinton has been the object of criticism by Republicans as well as some Democrats after suggesting during a fundraiser in New York that “half” of Mr Trump’s supporters were in a “basket of deplorables – racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobia, you name it”.
While the Democratic presidential nominee expressed regrets for her comments, they clearly helped the Trump campaign in its efforts to depict Mrs Clinton as an elitist who lacked any empathy for the concerns of working-class Americans.
The comments would clearly antagonise many of the white blue-collar workers in key states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania who have been attracted to Mr Trump’s populist message. But depicting her Republican opponent and his supporters as bigots may help her gain more support among white educated men and women in the same states who had tended in the past to vote for Republican presidential tickets. That is at least what the Democrats were hoping.
But many of the same Democrats were also wondering how one of the most famous politicians in the world, who has been running for president for close to a decade, and whose campaign was being run by veteran political professionals, continues to run even with a disastrous presidential candidate like Mr Trump, and could end up losing to him in November.
Many of the opinion polls continue to show Mrs Clinton with a slim lead over her Republican rival nationally and in several battleground states, including those that were considered in the past a Republican territory, like Virginia, Colorado and Nevada, and even closing on Mr Trump in Arizona and Georgia.
But the race remains very close and there are growing concerns in the Clinton camp that the opinion polls may be underestimating the electoral support for Mr Trump. In any case, Mr Trump has been acting “presidential” in recent days and seems to gradually increase his support even among African Americans and Latinos. The message for Mrs Clinton is clear: After recuperating from the bout of pneumonia, she needs to take care of her political health.
