Yesterday in Oregon:
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.
Ultimately, while I gained some respect for Clinton and her supporters that I did not previously have, what I have confirmed for myself that remains true of Clinton is this type of behavior that anything goes, that she can do or say anything to opponents, that she can tell whatever stories she wants because it is all excused by the chase for power, that its part of the game, and that if you can’t take that, you oughtta not be in politics. That is, she defends old schools biznass as-is. In fact, she excuses too much with the same line (almost verbatim) we’ve been hearing from the current resident of the White House who also subscribes to “Ends justify the means” philosophy. Clinton tells us to “leave it to the history books” to decide right and wrong. But we don’t live in history books. We live here, now. I have to say when I hear Bush and Clinton say “leave it to the history books” it sounds to me a lot like “I can do what I want and maybe one day it will seem honorable, because now it sure doesn’t.” And I’m hard-pressed to think of how this thought ever came to be an acceptable defense for anything.
It just never stops.
Can’t anyone explain to her why lying and embellishing is a bad thing? Has she never heard of the 2000 election and a story about the internet? Does anyone in that campaign think? Or can she just not help herself?
*** Update ***
Apparently the popular vote math we ridiculed yesterday is a theme among Clinton and her supporters:
Hillary Clinton once again tries to pretend that she was more against the Iraq War than Obama was. It turns out that this is true if you ignore the events of 2002, and those of 2003, and those of 2004 and then misportray the events of 2005.
In other news, according to a Bush administration official, if you exclude all of the people who do not have jobs, currently the economy is humming along at full employment.
*** Update #2 ***
Via the comments, this piece (published last night at 5:30) which states that Clinton will stop telling the story as part of her standard speeches.
*** Update #3 ***
Is Hillary getting a raw deal on the health care story:
The Washington Post article said Clinton was told the story during a campaign stop by Meigs County Sheriff’s Deputy Bryan Holman, and identified the Pomeroy woman by name. (The Messenger elected not to use the woman’s name in this article.) The 35-year-old woman died Aug. 15, according to The Washington Post.
Seeing the article, O’Bleness Health Systems reviewed its patient records and found that the woman had been a patient of its affiliates, O’Bleness Memorial Hospital and River Rose Obstetrics and Gynecology, according to a press release it issued Friday.
“We reviewed the medical and patient account records of this patient,” Rick Castrop, CEO of O’Bleness Health Systems, said in the press release. “There is no indication that she was ever denied medical care at any time, for any reason. We clearly reject any perception that we ever denied any care to this young woman.”
Castrop asks in the news release that the Clinton campaign “immediately desist from repeating this story.”
An article about the health system’s allegation that Clinton told this false story without verifying its accuracy was published on The New York Times Web site Friday.
“Hospital administrators (at O’Bleness) said Friday that (name withheld) was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured,” that story said. Anti-Clinton blogs seized on the story, posting it under such banners as “Hillary Clinton caught in another lie” and “Clinton’s make-believe health care horror story.”
However, contacted by The Messenger, Holman claimed the hospital he was referring to when he spoke to Clinton wasn’t O’Bleness, nor an affiliate.
Holman said when he spoke to Clinton, he never mentioned the name of the hospital that allegedly denied the woman care, nor did he mention the woman by name.
More as it comes out.