by Zack Downing, Staff Writer
The presidential election of 2016 has been one of the most bizarre and memorable in U.S. history. However, compared with the rest of the election cycle, the last twenty days or so have been slow in terms of political news.
Donald Trump hasn’t said anything outlandish lately, and people are growing weary of arguing about Hillary Clinton’s email negligence. The media has finally been focusing on something different.
Unfortunately, that focus has been on the opinions of an NFL quarterback who somehow became washed-up in only five seasons.
The political news scripts began flying out last week after Clinton had to exit a September 11 memorial event early, due to what her aides described as “overheating.” A few days later, it was released that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia.
Now, of course, this is important information to hear about; Clinton is the top choice presidential candidate for about half the country, and the public should know if she has fallen ill or if her ability to complete presidential duties has been compromised.
However, the extent to which some people took this news is somewhat alarming. There are people claiming she’s far sicker than the media is telling us, and there are also people claiming she’s pretending to be sick to either get sympathy or to circumvent debating Donald Trump.
Let’s just look at the facts for a second. Clinton has pneumonia, and that’s concerning for a woman nearing seventy. The older you get, the harder it becomes to recover from illness, and she could be hung up on it for a little while. So yes, she should be concerned about her health. But should we be?
Well, that depends on what “health” is referring to. For the leader of our country, long-term health does matter, whether it’s physical or mental health.
If either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump showed signs of suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, for example, then that would be a major cause for concern because of its debilitating effects. If they started developing Alzheimer’s, that would basically disqualify them from holding office.
It’s not farfetched to worry about these possibilities, either. People above 65 are highly vulnerable to sicknesses and diseases. Both Trump and Clinton are 70 and 68, respectively. If either of them make it through two terms in office without a serious illness, it would be a miracle.
However, while our elderly candidates are at a relatively high risk of sickness, I highly doubt Clinton’s pneumonia will affect her or her campaign in the long run.
There are people insisting that her illness proves she’s unfit for the Oval Office, which is absurd. Whoever thinks Clinton should drop out because of pneumonia should quit their own jobs after a sick day.
Odds are we will see her at full health in the first CNN debate, and this whole health scare will be forgotten about. However, if she is still too sick for the debate, then the story will change a bit.
If that were to happen, then we would have to be at least a little suspicious. Right after the September 11 memorial event, Clinton’s campaign claimed she was “feeling much better” and would be back to normal very soon. If her pneumonia carries on, it would indicate that they weren’t being truthful about her condition.
There will probably be some who will claim she’s pretending to still have pneumonia to avoid debating.
Not having debates would be a safe scenario for Clinton, as she has a solid lead in the polls going into October. However, that’s still an unconventional idea.
I don’t think CNN would even let Clinton miss the presidential debates, sick or not sick. These debates are going to bring them higher ratings than if Wolf Blitzer gave a newscast in a bikini.
We can theorize all we want, but in all likelihood she will be up and healthy very soon, and the 2016 presidential election season will continue as normal Well, it will go as “normal” as this election can manage to be…
At the end of the day, Clinton’s pneumonia should not be something to attack her on. If you want to attack her, there are dozens of other problems with her and her campaign you can take issue with.
We should calm down about one person’s sickness and look at the bigger picture. With two candidates that are this flawed, it’s remarkable that any headlines are devoted to their health.