Courtesy of The Intercept:Hillary Clinton: The Reagans, particularly Nancy, helped start "a national conversation" about HIV and AIDS. https://t.co/7sZp8X53fb— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 11, 2016
Clinton’s telling of HIV/AIDS history doesn’t align with the facts. President Reagan waited seven years to address the HIV/AIDS crisis, even as thousands of Americans died from the disease. Dr. C. Everett Koop, the administration’s surgeon general, said the president dragged his feet on the issue “because transmission of AIDS was understood to be primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs.” Koop said their position was that AIDS victims were “only getting what they justly deserve.”
In 1985 the Reagans’ friend Rock Hudson, then dying of AIDS, traveled to Paris in a desperate attempt to be treated by a French military doctor. As BuzzFeed’s Chris Geidner reported last year, Hudson’s publicist sent the Reagan White House a telegram begging for help in getting Hudson moved to a French military hospital where the doctor could treat him. Nancy Reagan personally saw and rejected the request.
Nancy Reagan may have played a role in encouraging her husband to push for more funding for AIDS research, which Congress did appropriate. However, says Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, “Shameful is not even strong enough a word for the record of the Reagan administration on this. Did she try and fail, or not try very hard? I really don’t know.”
Later of course Hillary walked this back a little, but not before handing Bernie Sanders plenty of ammunition for future debates, and angering many in the gay community:
It is understandable that Hillary feels that she must say something positive about a fellow former First Lady, but you would think that she would have at least one gay staff member who she could have run this statement past that would have told her not to say it.Hillary Clinton’s statement on her comments about the Reagans' record on HIV and AIDS: pic.twitter.com/RtIs0zpJfk— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 11, 2016
Or for that matter ANYBODY who is aware of the history of the Reagan's abysmal record on fighting HIV/AIDS.
These are the kinds of unforced errors that have bedeviled Hillary in the past and she really needs to tighten things up to keep them from happening moving forward.
Hillary's statement makes me gag!
ReplyDeleteSheesh! Hillary snatches defeat out of the jaws of victory? Why add any comments. I hated the Reagans, both of them. He was the beginning of the country's ruin. Trickle down meant he pissed on all of us and we're still feeling it.
ReplyDeleteThen there is this irregularity about the Democratic primary vote - Hmmm.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Suspect-Massachusetts-by-Theodore-Soares-2016-Elections_Election-Integrity_Election-Integrity_Massachusetts-Election-160310-913.html#14577290572241&action=collapse_widget&id=0&data=
She made a mistake, corrected it and apologized. I would hope that the LGBT community would look to HRC's record, not this unfortunate statement. As for Bernie fans, it's just one more in a long line of faux outrages they blow up the internet with. I was more concerned with the "Bern the Bitch" event scheduled by a Bernie bunch. How does the LGBT community feel about that? Be honest.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is her record with the LGBT community is not so hot either.
Delete@ Anonymous9:25 AM - Hillary steps in dog shit - your response? But, but, but Bernie supporters. Of course!
DeleteAnonymous11:10 AM,
DeleteNo, no, no...stop cherry picking. The coreect evrsion is - Hillary steps in dog shit; SHE APOLOGISES; Hillary haters don't care about apologies or her record.
@ Anonymous12:16 PM - Stop cherry picking? I quit. Your argument is just too fucking brilliant for me to compete.
DeleteWTF? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
ReplyDeleteGood Read>
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/machiavelli-hillary-clinton_us_56e34084e4b065e2e3d60b79
My jaw dropped when I heard this one. Anyone who was of an age of awareness in the 1980s knows what she said was a complete misrepresentation or misremembering of history. Gay men were dying right and left and at first no one knew why and people were laughing about the "gay disease" and how "those pervs deserve it". It started in 1981 and Reagan didn't speak about it until 1987. If she cooked that statement up and thought she'd get it past people, she's a sociopath. If she truly remembers it the way she said, there's something really wrong with her - dementia or brain damage. You could not have been an adult in the early 1980s and misremembered it that grotesquely wrong.
ReplyDeleteHillary's corrected statement says
Delete“While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, I misspoke about their record on H.I.V. and AIDS,”
THIS IS JUST AS FULL OF SHIT AS THE FIRST STATEMENT HILLARY MADE ABOUT THE REAGANS DOING JACK SHIT ABOUT HIV/AIDS WHILE THE BAND PLAYED ON.
Nancy Reagan did advocate for stem cell research, but Ronald Reagan never did when he was capable of making his own decisions as far as I know. Ronald's adopted son (with his first wife Jane Wyman) Michael Reagan continues to campaign against stem cell research and continues to deny that Ronald Reagan ever supported it.
Hilary is a pathological liar imo.
That's what all of them count on, Gryph, a short attention span. I am fortunate to have a long memory as long as I can keep it at the ripe age of 58.
ReplyDeleteAs the saying goes, "you can't bullshit a bullshitter," and I am living proof.
OT-http://www.adn.com/article/20160312/one-dog-dead-several-injured-after-snowmachine-attack-iditarod-trail
ReplyDeleteJeff King and Aliy Zirkle > Peace be with you!
Rachel Maddow made a comment about this morning that I absolutely agree with. Hillary said "I'm sorry". Plain and simple. She did not blame anyone else, she said SHE misspoke. She did not say she was sorry if anyone was offended. She did not blame staff, intern, anyone but Hillary, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe all get things wrong, it's human nature. I don't expect anyone to be perfect. It's how they handle the error that, to me, makes all the difference. Yes, Hillary gave credit to the Reagans for something they definitely did not do, in fact they were on the polar opposite side of the issue, but she did take responsibility for the error and apologized.
I'm torn on this.Yes she did give a proper apology as far as not passing the buck. However she also softened it by giving Nancy props for stem cell research which is another stretch IMO and way too kind to what Nancy actually did.
DeleteI feel like she was/is pandering to republicans and got caught.
I agree, and this was a gaffe that does not deserve 'legs.' Let's hope it doesn't last beyond the weekend news cycle. As the heat increases between Trump supporters and protestors - and it's not even summer yet - something it likely to cast this moment as little potatoes soon.
Delete"I feel like she was/is pandering to republicans and got caught."
DeleteIf there's any pandering, it's the apology.
I find it impossible to beleive that she did not know where the Reagens stood on this issue.
DeleteImpossible.
"She did not blame anyone else, she said SHE misspoke."
DeleteBut that's not honest either. "Misspeaking," for instance, is when you accidentally call someone named Dave, Charlie. Saying something that is completely untrue is a "lie," and is not an example of misspeaking.
As a former first lady herself, she was obviously looking for soemthing positive to say about Nancy on he passing. She didn't think it through. It's not a crime.
DeleteI, for one, am tired of the "misspoke" excuse. They say exactly what they mean, and only back track when they're called on it.
DeleteAnonymous12:21 PM,
DeleteThen let's apply that judgement unilaterally. You should also be "very tired" then with all the times that Bernie "misspoke" and didn't AND hasn't yet apologize.
I would like to honor the memory of Nancy Reagan by reminding everyone that she was THREE months PREGNANT when she married Saint Ronnie. (But at least she GOT married, Bristol.)
ReplyDelete/rant on
DeleteFirst - why does every comment thread have to be dragged into the Palin saga?!? I have no idea what Hillary or Nancy have to do with the Palins other than how both women held Sarah in contempt. I also do not understand how mentioning a very common event is in anyway germane to the topic of Reagan's legacy (or lack thereof).
Second-I'm going to weigh in here under this comment because I'm getting a little tired of reading comments about people being pregnant before they are married or having children while not being married. I understand the criticism towards Bristol Palin and family because they came in on their high family values horses and tried to tell everyone how to live. But there are a great many people in this world who have "put the cart before the horse" (like Nancy Reagan) or who never bothered with the cart in the first place who do not deserve this kind of ridicule and abuse.
I would love to know how many of the readers here would have to own up to the former (pregnant before marriage) and how many - like me - don't think that you have to be married to have children or be a responsible parent.
I wonder how many of us would be still be here if our parents waited until the wedding night. I myself would be short one ab-fab big sister and an equally terrific cousin.
/rant off
But but but are they abstinence spokesmodels for money and profess to be devout christians?
DeleteSEE? Not that hard to dislike their hypocrisy.
Kerry10:46 AM
DeleteThank you so much for your rant. I second every word of it and more.
F+ck off Kerry.
DeleteDon't like it? Don't read it.
And why waste time trying to deflect from the nasty habits of the Palins unless you are paid to do so.
@2:04
DeleteYou should fuck off. It's rude to drag the Palins into every thread. Accusing someone of being paid when they object to that shows even more childishness.
OTOH: much criticized Elizabeth Taylor was the most faithful of friends. Some of her "affairs" were covering homosexual friends like Rock Hudson. When he died, she became a crusader against AIDS.
ReplyDeleteBelow, a Reddit comment I just saw... Wow. The Clinton's actually went all out in '92 making the Reagan's shameful policies on AIDS a central campaign issue.
ReplyDeleteThey used it, the Clinton's went so far as to arrange for a gay man who just was diagnosed with lymphoma at the time to speak at the convention in '92 condemning Reagan for letting him die, and endorsing Clinton.
Now. Here she is completely reversing history and giving all the credit in depth to Reagan for leading the conversation on AIDS.
u/scrignutz had the following smart and illuminating things to say about what the Clintons did and didn't know about the Reagan response to the AIDS crisis. I am sharing with permission:
>The Clintons had Bob Hattoy, the Sierra Club guy in California who had just been diagnosed with HIV and lymphoma, give a huge speech at the '92 DNC endorsing Clinton because 12 years of Reagan-Bush "let them die" policy was unacceptable.
Because they polled Democrats and urban/suburban Dem/swing voters constantly, they saw the AIDS crisis had converted a majority of Democrats and liberal independents, so they went all out with an actual AIDS patient (and an awesome environmental leader in California) on national television, railing against the Republican indifference to tens of thousands of people dying. This guy then went to the White House, and was always in the news. Eventually they shuffled him over to Interior because of his outrage over DADT, and he died at 56 years of age.
>I remember watching the first Clinton inauguration, which was a cynical parody of liberal wish-list items personified by, for example, a gay and lesbian group ringing a (the?) liberty bell. They would quickly turn on the gays as they've turned on every kind of Democrat and liberal and leftist who didn't fit their current needs, and as Hillary plotted their moves right there alongside Carville and Bill in those campaign days, it is INSULTING to all of us for her to rattle off some pointlessly wrong garbage about Nancy Reagan when we all know SHE knows every detail of the Reagan/Bush treatment of the AIDS crisis. She knows it, she campaigned against it, and the Clintons even put a real-live AIDS patient on national television to make this point.
>If you remember that '92 DNC, you might also remember that Bob Hattoy was frequently described, afterwards, as "the only gay man most Americans have ever seen."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUa
I believe the explanation is simple.
DeleteFor Hilary (and Bill) ideas and history are just as replaceable and disposable as people.
Every time they need something new... walllah! Just open their mouth and say whatever words they think fit the occasion.
Great find!
DeleteWhich is why I find it IMPOSSIBLE that Hillary made her original statement.
Perhaps the fall did some damage to her brain uh oh.
Hillary remembered, 10:56 AM
DeleteYour comment is as stupid as your use of "wallah". The word is "voilá".
"Every time they need something new... walllah! Just open their mouth and say whatever words they think fit the occasion"
DeleteSounds like what you did here.
"Wallah" is a Sanskrit/Hindi word and should not be used as it was used above.
Delete"But the baffling, and disturbing thing that remains watching Clinton’s MSNBC interview is that she did not “misspeak.”
ReplyDeleteShe spoke as thoughtfully and carefully as someone who knew, and believed, in what they were saying.
Hillary Clinton, supposed LGBT power-buddy, honestly thought in that moment that the Reagans had been HIV and AIDS advocates in the 1980s. The question is, why on earth did she think that, when—as someone who was around then—she would have known the opposite, the polar opposite, was true.
When you “misspeak” you say something flippant, or out of turn. But you don’t “misspeak” when you truly believe one thing to be true—only to quickly disclaim it when you are told it isn’t.
When you get something as massively wrong as labeling the chief proponents of ignorance and homophobia as the opposite—as advocates and supporters—then one must ask what your depth and understanding of LGBT lives and experiences is."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/11/hillary-clinton-suddenly-has-a-big-gay-problem.html
As a member of the LGBT community who was diagnosed with AIDS 10 years ago, I would like to say I have absolutely no problem with Hillary Clinton and I fully support her candidacy for President of the United States in 2016!! I find all of this Hillary bashing to be utterly shameful!
DeleteI'd have a really hard time finding something positive to say about that shrew. I noticed that the clips shown from her funeral really weren't sentimental reflections about a loving mother/friend. They had an edge to them.
ReplyDeleteNo one could say she was a good mother. In old age there was a fence that was mended, she was still not a good parent.
DeleteHer obsession with Ronnie seemed pathological but they gave it a good spin for Presidential history.
I definitely had that "What's in it for us?" vibe.
DeleteHillary's initial statement was factually correct. It's unfortunate she didn't elaborate more but I think the negative reaction is ridiculously polarized and an overly simplistic response to a complicated issue.
ReplyDeleteClinton only said the Reagan's, especially Nancy, got the national conversation started on AIDS. Yes, for too many years and too many deaths, Ronald Reagan was hostile to the gay community and HIV-AIDS devastation. Nancy convinced him to change course. And so began the broader national conversation and investment in research to combat the disease.
What you described 1038 is complete and utter bullshit and nearly made me vomit. Nancy Reagan did not convince her husband to "change course" and the last people in politics who anyone who was an adult then would think of to credit with getting "the national conversation started" is the Reagans. This is sickening. You're mentally ill if you believe what you wrote.
DeleteMy comment was an minor attempt to inject some objectivity into an emotional conversation that's highly politicized. It's definitely not 'utter bullshit' and I'm not mentally ill. Please see 10:49 am.
Delete~10:38am
There's nothing politicized. What Clinton said was a complete falsehood. If that's how she recalls it, she's either got dementia or brain damage. If she knows better and was pandering, then she's a sociopath. If you or anyone recalss or believes Nancy Reagan convinced her husband to "change course" and "started a national conversation", you can discover how wrong it is with a 10 second google search.
DeleteI have to say that when we were at an unbeloved aunts funeral one year and the priest asked us to stand up and say something nice, noone moved. So, I stood up and dredged up a memory of her bomblasting other drivers on the road in her colorful yet hateful way trying to appease the awkward silence. Noone even cracked a smile. They knew my aunt for what she was. So, I was left with more awkward. Ugh. Learned my lesson. If the biatch was a biatch just say it. But yeah, Hillary should have, could have but didn't say nothing at all. Damn woman. Keep your' foot on the ground!
ReplyDeleteAs a former First Lady, she was obliged to comment.
DeleteSo some of Ronald Reagan's hostility toward gays may be myth.
ReplyDelete"For the record, Reagan first mentioned AIDS, in response to a question at a press conference, on Sept. 17, 1985. On Feb. 5, 1986, he made a surprise visit to the Department of Health and Human Services where he said, “One of our highest public health priorities is going to be continuing to find a cure for AIDS.” He also announced that he’d tasked Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to prepare a major report on the disease. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Reagan dragged Koop into AIDS policy, not the other way around.
[...]
The administration increased AIDS funding requests from $8 million in 1982 to $26.5 million in 1983, which Congress bumped to $44 million, a number that doubled every year thereafter during Reagan’s presidency.
Finally, the claim that Reagan spoke about AIDS sufferers with “disdain” is simply a smear. Nothing like that ever happened, except maybe in the fictional “The Reagans” miniseries in which Barbra Streisand’s husband played Reagan as a bigot and rube.
Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/06/01/ronald_reagan_and_aids_correcting_the_record_122806.html#ixzz42ihRPRj6
Interestingly enough her campaign manager is Robby Mook. He just spoke at the HRC Annual Coonvention, yesterday. He is the first openly gay presidential campaign manager. Perhaps he is too young to understand how little was done by the Reagans. Hillary always makes it hard to want to vote for her. :/
ReplyDelete"Hillary always makes it hard to want to vote for her."
DeleteI'm beginning to have second thoughts about her also. I may end up voting for Sanders even though he's a bit short in the experience department. He's still leagues ahead of any of the Republicans.
I'm not sure it was Miss Manners that gave me this counsel but I'm confident she would agree that on occasions like this, it's best to confine one's self to repeated "I'm so sorry(s)" and vague, encompassing claims of "(s)he'll be very missed," while not naming by whom.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when the decedent is in any way controversial.
It manages not to offend both the truly bereaved, nor those feeling lighter of one less adversary.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteDisguting
I commented this on previous post.
The Reagens could get behind Elizabeth Glaser and Pediatric AIDs, after much coercing...and only because peds patients are "innocent bystanders" who were infected in utero, or via breast milk or blood transfusions....and Elizabeth was the wife of a very big Hollyood star: Paul Micheal Glaser.
Read Elizabeth's book "In the Absence of Angels" for how long it took Ronnie and Nancy to get on board. Both Elizabeth and her daughter Arielle died of AIDS. Son Jake is alve and well because of a genetic luck that makes him immune to the infection.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-beautiful-gene/
That's your girl Gryphen. Also against gay marriage before she saw the writing on the wall and was for it.
ReplyDeleteRemember her in 2008, crying, "this is just so hard!" while on the trail? She also voted for Iraq invasion.
Delete@ Anonymous11:37 AM - Yup, Hillary puts on the crocodile tears and makes a come-from-behind win in NH. I always (sarcastically) equate that to "That special episode of the Mod Squad where 'Linc' cried."
DeleteSo many pure ComradeBernieBros on this thread! Must be nice to always be right and NEVER change a position on a socio-cultural issue! Oh, wait. ComradeBernie himself has done so! C.f. gun manufacturers, the "auto bailout", the old Liberty Union party, et al.
Delete@ Anonymous1:30 PM - Really? Name calling?
DeleteDid Bernie ever apologize for his published pro-rape fantasies?
DeleteYes, 207. Get up to speed. Thanks.
DeleteAnd hey, if you thought this one was tough, wait till Battle Axe Babs croaks and the quantity of hypocrisy we'll witness summoned to say anything positive about that crone.
ReplyDeleteCan the mortician pose her clutching her pearls in the casket?
DeleteThe best I could muster is "Her dog, Millie, wrote a good book"
DeleteJust another politician mouthing words without understanding or belief.
ReplyDeleteYou mean like bernie talking about all balck people being poor and living in the ghetto? Did he ever apologize?
DeleteHer statement angered me, very much. I'm disappointed at that error, she is smarter than that. I was 95% voting Hillary and I'd say I'm down to 50% based on this single comment.
ReplyDeleteGo for Bernie.
DeleteA vote for Bernie = President Trump, unfortunately.
DeleteThis week Drumpf is after Bernie. Next week he and Sarah can take down Hillary again.
DeleteTrump: "It's Payback Time"
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-it-s-payback-time-really
Isn't that all the GOP presidential candidates are going for now? They united over paying back President Obama and sacrificed any resemblence to them being legitimate lawmakers, representatives or citizens. Now they are obstructionists full of payback. The guy that spent a fortune to prove President Obama was not born in Hawaii is the leader of the pack. A pack that wants to get rid of their lead and be the most revengeful of all. Sick GOP. Find life support or you die by your own being.
Revanchism
http://www.follownews.com/trump-its-payback-time-really-xvd0
I think Hillary was confusing Nancy Reagan with Elizabeth Taylor in those comments.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Taylor who might be credited with starting a national mainstream conversation on AIDS.
Another reason to vote for Hillary....... Bwah hah hah hah.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/8741148/Dick-Cheney-heaps-praise-on-Hillary-Clinton.html
Hillary Clinton: The Reagans, particularly Nancy, helped start "a national conversation" about HIV and AIDS.
ReplyDelete---------------------
They sure did. A national conversation about how the Reagan administration did nothing positive to combat the crisis, how they blocked the CDC from doing their job, how they turned a major public health issue into a political issue.
I'm surprised she didn't run this by someone before putting it out there. We lost dear friends and were denied even the chance to visit without full haz mat cover, but I cherished the time we did have. No one, at the time, knew with certainty how it was transmitted, and homophobia ran rampant, causing people more fear and stress.
ReplyDeleteNancy was FOR stem cell research AFTER Ronald got Alzheimer's,before that, she was just fine with Bush's ban on new stem cells. Liz Taylor lost someone either in her family or circle of friends, and plead with Nancy to put more money into aids research. A good book on those days is "And the Band Played On" I think this was one of the darkest periods in my memory, so many needlessly died because of homophobia and ignorance.
Many people are commenting on how that untruth just rolled off her tongue, like it was a true fact. "Many of your viewers might not remember"...yeah, Hillary, NONE of us remember. Damn, I can't figure out why people think you're not trustworthy or honest. I think that perhaps the most troubling thing here was NBC letting her have a do over, and then showing the corrected tape to the viewers on the west coast, without saying a word about her screw up. In the doctored version, Nancy was a champion of Alzheimer's research. Was she? Not taking Slick Hilly's word for it.
ReplyDeleteThis really hurts.
ReplyDeleteThousands died before the Reagans could be bothered to lift a finger. Because it was largely gays who were dying. This wouldn't have happened if we were talking housewives.
The fact that Hilary said this tells me she either doesn't know about our history. Or our history is less important to her than trying to say something nice about Nancy in order to woo voters.
Even her "cover-up" tweet about the Reagans passion for Alzheimer's research. Please understand, if Saint Ronnie never developed Alzheimer's, they wouldn't have gave a damn about that either.
That's what's "weird" about us liberals. We don't have to personally endure suffering before we try to prevent it in others.