During the past several months, Hillary Clinton has had a number of serious and lengthy coughing fits, which has led several people to question if the Democratic presidential nominee is healthy enough to deal with the many requirements of occupying the White House.
One person who has discussed Clinton's health is Sooperman, who posted on The Right Scoop website that she once questioned the well-being of Cristina Kirchner during that woman's tenure as president of Argentina.
The poster began his missive by stating sarcastically:
I need everyone to STOP questioning Hillary’s health!! Don’t you guys know that it’s SEXIST to do that? And it’s MISOGYNISTIC?! And other polysyllabic words that useless “women’s studies” majors toss about?!
Also, that’s exactly what Hillary did when she questioned a female world leader’s health.
This was the Guardian's headline: “Hillary Clinton Questions Cristina Kirchner's Mental Health.”
“So if it’s sexist and misogynist to question Hillary’s health, then what was it when she did it?” Sooperman asked.
“Now to be fair, she did it in private and her emails were leaked about it” long before her current email scandal.
According to an article written in November of 2010 by Rory Carroll, the Guardian's Latin America correspondent, “Hillary Clinton has questioned the mental health of Cristina Kirchner and asked U.S. diplomats to investigate whether the Argentinian president is taking medication to help her 'calm down.'”
“The U.S. secretary of state painted Kirchner as a volatile and emotional leader who suffered from “nerves and anxiety,” according to a secret cable sent to the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires,” Carroll stated.
“But her questions,” Sooperman asserted, “seem a little … SEXIST!!!”
“Clinton asked diplomats a series of questions in December last year which could infuriate Kirchner and sabotage a recent rapprochement between Argentina and America,” Carroll noted.
“In a section headed 'mental state and health,'” he continued, “she asked how the first lady-turned president (after her husband Nestor died) was managing 'her nerves and anxiety' in a blunt tone which suggested U.S. concerns.”
"How does stress affect her behavior toward advisers and/or her decision-making?” Clinton asked. “What steps does Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner or her advisers/handlers take in helping her deal with stress? Is she taking any medications?”
"Under what circumstances is she best able to handle stresses?” the secretary of state queried. “How do Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's emotions affect her decision-making and how does she calm down when distressed?"
“The cable appeared to have been prompted by diplomatic spats which, according to the U.S. embassy, showed Kirchner's government to be extremely thin-skinned and intolerant of perceived criticism,” Carroll stated.
In addition, the correspondent stated that “Clinton's queries are likely to upset the president and prompt jokes about tranquilizers in the Casa Rosada,” the nation's executive mansion.
“The leaked memo comes at a sensitive time,” Carroll stated, “after a thaw in relations between the two countries” since “the 57-year-old leader is known for glamor, a combative style and leftist populism which has prompted bitter clashes with foes at home and, on occasion, with the U.S.”
“Her critics will seize on the memo as evidence that she is unstable,” he continued. “Supporters will brand it proof she has stood up to a superpower which once considered Latin America its backyard.”
Carroll also noted:
Clinton's preoccupation may stem partly from the fact that Kirchner's career has mirrored her own: Both are lawyers and tough political operators whose husbands became president and campaigned for their wives to inherit the sash after they left office.
Before being elected in 2007, Kirchner welcomed the comparisons and called the then-New York senator an inspiration.
“Clinton also expressed curiosity about the relationship of Argentina's power couple,” he continued.
"We are currently preparing a written product examining the interpersonal dynamics between the governing tandem,” Clinton noted. “We have a much more solid understanding of Néstor Kirchner's style and personality than we do of Cristina ... and would like to develop a more well-rounded view of (her) personality."
Sooperman then asked sarcastically about Clinton's fixation on Kirchner' emotions: “Hillary sounds like every disgruntled ex-husband!!! And let’s not forget, Kirchner is Argentinian, so this makes Hillary RACIST, according to liberal standards!!”
“There you have it,” the poster stated. “Hillary is a sexist, racist, misogynist. Then again, maybe it’s just the concussion’s fault.”
“On the other hand, Kirchner really actually did turn out to be insane” when she adopted a boy to prevent the 13-year-old from becoming a werewolf, he concluded. "But then, maybe so is Hillary.”
Or at least Clinton is hypocritical when it comes to dealing with the health of other female world leaders.
