Lame.
Hillary Clinton has had two public coughing fits in the past week. This is important because ... well, it's not explicitly clear. The
Weekly Standard simply posted video of Clinton's coughing during a rally on Sunday in Bridgeport, Conn., along with the explanation she offered the crowd: "I have been talking non-stop for weeks now." The conservative magazine didn't attempt to get into the significance.
The
Washington Free Beacon took a similar approach to Clinton's coughing during a "
Breakfast Club" radio interview last Monday, posting video and recapping the Democratic presidential front-runner's exchange with the show's hosts, who joked that she sounded as if she had been smoking medical marijuana and asked if she needed CPR. The conservative newspaper offered no broader implications.
This is typical of coverage by right-leaning news outlets whenever Clinton suffers an on-camera coughing spell, as she has on several occasions in this campaign. The recurring headline might as well be "Hillary Clinton has a coughing problem — just sayin'." But they're not "just sayin'." There's a reason the former secretary of state's ticklish throat is an issue. Fortunately, we can count on a couple of straight-shooters to abandon subtlety and suggestion. "Is Hillary Clinton healthy enough to be president?" wondered the
Daily Caller in February. A few weeks earlier,
Breitbart News reported that Clinton's coughing raises "questions about her health and stamina."
There it is. This is about suggesting that Clinton might be
physically unfit to be commander-in-chief. And no one has pushed this idea harder than Matt Drudge, the news aggregator extraordinaire whose highly trafficked Drudge Report website
seems to favor Donald Trump.
Let's get a few things straight here: Clinton
does have a condition called hypothyroidism, which hinders the thyroid's production of a hormone that regulates metabolism and can cause fatigue. And she
is prone to coughing spells when speaking for extended periods of time;
according to NBC News, she drinks tea and uses a humidifier to combat the problem. These non-secrets have been noted by
Politico,
Mother Jones,
Salon,
the Hill and many other outlets that Clinton haters would like to believe are engaged in a cover-up.
Let's also say that it is fair to ask whether presidential candidates — especially older ones like Clinton — are up to the physical demands of running the country. Clinton will be 69 on Inauguration Day; Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders will be 70 and 75, respectively. All three have released doctors' notes documenting good health. If Clinton actually had a serious medical problem, or otherwise appeared too frail to be president, it would be a big deal. But mainstream media outlets haven't made a big deal of Clinton's coughing because, as Dr. Philip Weintraub explained last fall to an inquiring patient — The Fix's Philip Bump — it probably doesn't indicate anything more than a dry throat brought on by prolonged talking.
Also,
Clinton's coughing thing has been a thing for almost a decade now — during which time she has managed to run for president twice and serve four years as secretary of state. If it were really a symptom of some terrible ailment that would prevent her from fulfilling her duties, wouldn't it have done so by now?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ias-obsession-with-hillary-clintons-coughing/