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8 de Abril, 2008
Clinton Isn't Completely Lying
Categorized under Race for '08 | Tags: Clinton
SO THE CLINTON story about her telling the insurance story is both not true...and true.
The aunt of a young pregnant woman who died after a hospital told her she needed to pay $100 up front for care said in an interview on Monday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been telling the story accurately on the campaign trail -- following claims by a different Ohio hospital that it did not turn the patient away.For weeks, Clinton repeated an anecdote she heard in Ohio on Feb. 28 involving a young woman who lost her baby and later died because she lacked health insurance and did not have $100 to gain access to a nearby hospital.
But over the weekend, Clinton came under fire when officials at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, after reading about her remarks, demanded that she stop recounting it because the patient, Trina Bechtel, was admitted there and did have insurance.
That part, it turns out, is true. But so is Clinton's claim that Bechtel did not get care at another hospital that wanted a $100 pre-payment before seeing her, according to the young woman's aunt, Lisa Casto.
ABC analyzes it. I get bored of it.
I'll amend my article, of course. I think it is a small thing by now. It wasn't my main point, and now that I think of it, I should have stayed away from it until I really analyzed my tapes closely. It tends to distract.
The problem is that it plays into Clintons' serial exaggerating. And that's how these things go. If she hadn't flavored up that Bosnia adventure, turned around the NAFTA accusation (canada), and claimed more glory from passing SCHIP than many say she deserves, there wouldn't be this lean in the media now. You do this a little here and there, and I think people begin to give you less wiggle room. They want you to stop wiggling. People who defend Clinton claim the media is out to destroy her, some say because she is a woman. But I think that when you run for POTUS and part of your glory is due to being in the company and family of someone who was POTUS, a natural test is going to fall upon you and that will be How much experience and ability do YOU bring just by ya badself? So the fact that HRC is scrutinized in this way, through this lens, only makes sense to me. While I think (of course) HRC must battle sexism on this campaign and much of it, it is disingenuous in the extreme to claim that the natural probing and attacks that lay on that path are only due to her being a woman. They are due to her vying for power and any person vying for any kind of power will meet resistance. (Though I'll be the first to admit that a woman and a black man will meet more than some others!)
Anyway, the larger point is true. People do need more insurance. To be covered more, and easier. The dramatic "true stories" kind of annoy me coming from any camp. to tell you the truth. So maudlin and melodramatic, and spoken as if so very personally known to the speaker, when really they are just passing on some gossip half the time. Like us!
Vote Blogger '08!
PS: Now that Obama Parts 1 and 2 are up, (and a lengthy blog that describes the entire journey of shooting that event is done and will soon be up) I can work on that Clinton video and really review the footage closely. I wish I had time to be doing it news style, like hardcore editing right after the event until its done, but I have a life and a family and other jobs to do in between all of this hectic news jobbie stuff.
*For those who come here due to a link on a corrected article, the orginal (now struck) text was:
Finally, Clinton is still telling the "woman-turned'away-and-died" hospital story that she has been told is not true, and has been asked not to by Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System in Athens, Ohio. Get the facts of the story here.
PS: It is true and remains true that Clinton is comfortable using the Bush philosophy of (checked, its on my tape) "We'll leave that to the history books" and yes, that does disturb me more, to tell you the truth, than a fibbed or exaggerated or finessed hospital story. And I hope for obvious reasons. I'm sure all these types finesse "personal hardship stories found on campaign trail" and I bet doing so is an age old tradition. But I don't want a candidate using this Leave It To History moral carte blanche anymore. We've seen what can be justified with it.
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Comentarios (4)
Tom dijo:
We're not lying on purpose, we just don't have time to worry about whether what we say is true or not. People try to make this big distinction between amorality and immorality, but I don't see the difference.
Palabras por Tom spat forth on el 8 de Abril, 2008 at 10:25 AM
peasant dijo:
The "leave it to history" phrase can be code for "catch me if you can" after all pertinent traces have been redacted, erased, purged, edited, or lost.
"Leave it to history" can also be merely a stalling tactic "until my advisors have weighed all the potential responses and have come up with the best spin."
"Leave it to history" might also be a smoke screen for "Give up! You will never get me to admit that I was ever wrong!"
"Leave it to history" means "Next question please, I don't want to answer that one fully."
"Leave it to history" may also mean "I didn't know then, and I don't really know now, but that won't stop me from making similarly uninformed decisions in the future."
"Take it or leave it." "That's the way it was, that's the way it is, and I'm not really concerned if it was right or wrong anyway. You're all peons and your opinions don't count."
I am sure there are more variations..and ...I'm fairly positive your list would be more thorough.
Palabras por peasant spat forth on el 8 de Abril, 2008 at 07:07 PM
nezua
dijo:
good point. it might be one of many things.
Palabras por nezua
spat forth on el 8 de Abril, 2008 at 07:10 PM
Tom
dijo:
Perdóneme, my comment must have meant something to me when I posted it. I'm almost sure of that.
Palabras por Tom
spat forth on el 9 de Abril, 2008 at 09:17 AM