More on health...and transparency

In the blink of an eye, Hillary Clinton’s health has gone from conspiracy theorist’s fodder to a national discussion about transparency. If you haven’t checked your phone in the past 48 hours, the kerfuffle is over a video showing Clinton swaying and stumbling into a van after leaving the 9/11 ceremony in NYC. Take a look, the video is difficult to watch.

Emily Bazelon wrote in last week’s New York Times Magazine, “Political campaigning is the business of transforming the private into the public.” The illusion of transparency is important and the perceived lack of it can dog a politician until they cave to the pressure. (I’m thinking Barack Obama’s birth certificate or concerns over John McCain’s health in 2008).

Hillary Clinton is one of the most well-known candidates to ever run for President. Her history as First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State and two-time presidential candidate has provided a lot of time to dig around in her past. In addition, we live in an internet era of unparalleled information at one’s fingertips. Social media and armchair experts are a dangerous combination and*poof* -- the refusal to disclose something as simple as an infection becomes much more than sickness and health.

David Axelrod summed up the campaign’s dilemma with his biting tweet, “Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?”

Is Clinton’s insistence on privacy hurting her candidacy? She has been more open about many things than her opponent has. (She released her tax returns, revealed a more substantive medical record than Donald, and has been willing to apologize for her mistakes.) Nevertheless, the Clinton team erred when it shut out the media for 90 minutes after whisking her away on September 11^th and they know it. Those 90 minutes were enough time to fire up the critics and non-critics, as they raced to fill the vacuum of missing details. News outlets juiced their spin machines, claiming this latest action as another example of her “secretive” and “dishonest” behavior. Drudge questioned “Will She Survive?” Even Tom Brokaw  on Meet the Press, speculated that Clinton should see a neurologist, alluding to a far graver ailment than a case of pneumonia.

Clinton’s silence on Sunday took her “debunked health conspiracy theories… and turned them into a legitimate issue.” According to pollster Peter Hart, Clinton must focus on “what’s driving her and what she’s about.”

At this point Clinton doesn’t have a lot to lose and has much to gain by releasing additional medical records. She plans to do this in the coming weeks and has been (surprise! ) joined by Donald Trump who promises “very, very specific numbers” that are “going to be good.”