Full Disclosure

As a member of Hillary Clinton's age group, I sympathize with her health problems. At Clinton's age (and mine) we are moving targets—age, heredity, life style choices, and blind luck often dictate how healthy or unhealthy we are. Hillary Clinton's health history is not good (e.g., repeated feinting and falls, a concussion, serious coughing, now, pneumonia), and many have suggested that a full disclosure of that history is an important element of any decision to elect her president. Those who have made this suggestion have been branded as everything from "conspiracy theorists" to "misogynists" by Clinton's cohort of rabid supports and her trained media hamsters.

Michael Goodwin comments:

The Washington Post, CNN and others added their voices to the Clinton chorus, demonizing any who mentioned her coughing fits as cranks, nut jobs and conspiracy theorists. No news here, they thundered.

In fact, the deniers were suckers. They were buying into the Clinton scam that the world is out to get her. They are her useful idiots.

Guilty of malpractice, they participated in a shameful episode fueled by the media’s determination to defeat Donald Trump. They don’t love Clinton, but their hate for Trump blinds them to their duty.

Because they believe they should pick the president, they didn’t want to know the extent of Clinton’s health problems, and didn’t want anybody else to know, either.

Then, within four days of the NBC story, Clinton’s doctor checked her because of the persistent cough, and diagnosed her with pneumonia. Again, we know that only because the video forced the campaign’s hand.

Of course, it would be foolish to believe we know the full truth now. Allergies don’t usually cause pneumonia, and pneumonia doesn’t usually cause otherwise-healthy people to collapse on the street. There’s probably much more to the story.

But neither should we be foolish enough to believe The Washington Post, The New York Times and others will report the full story in straightforward fashion. They soon will suffer their own amnesia about how Clinton humiliated them and jump back into the tank for her.

That process already has started, and the protective circle around her will draw closer as the election does. As she goes, they go.

But remember the little video — it is a hinge of hope. It shows the power of simple facts and the value of the democratization of media.

In this case, it lifted the veil of dishonesty and informed the electorate. In doing so, it reminded millions of Americans why they don’t trust the mainstream media any more than they trust the Clintons.

Smart people, deplorables and all.

Here's the problem. Hillary Clinton and her entire campaign are reflexively dishonest. It has gotten so bad that anything they state is open to question and outside verification. If the Clinton campaign releases medical information that has been under their control, produced by physicians that they control, it is now reasonable to question its veracity.

The candidates (both Clinton and Trump) should check into a major New York medical center for a day. They should undergo a through medical exam and a corresponding review of all health records. The medical center should then release a report that would indicate any serious health concerns. That would help put this issue to bed once and for all. If Clinton (and Trump) are as healthy as they claim, there is no reason to resist full disclosure.