You just KNOW there will be lots of speculation — and jokes — about this:
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton collapsed Monday during a speech but aides said the former first lady quickly recovered from what they described as a fainting spell triggered by a 24-hour flu and continued on to a second public engagement.
She’s fine," aides to the junior senator from New York told NBC News.
An aide to the 57-year-old Clinton, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the senator had been suffering from a flu bug but pressed ahead with an appearance at the private Saturn Club before a group of women voters.
She was speaking about Social Security in a warm room in front of 150 people when she briefly lost consciousness, according to the aide.
That Social Security issue will do that to you (I’ll wait and see it when it’s turned into a movie).
And that is one of the more tasteful jokes (rotten) you’ll see. The 24-hour-a-day Hillary haters will have a field day with this one. (I don’t belong to that club and I just came up with — and deleted — three tasteless jokes.)
The fainting spell is bound set off some speculation. In normal times, an aide saying it’s the result of a flu bug would be enough — but these are highly political…and polarized…times. So we are sure to see follow up stories.
The bottom line is, no matter what the cause, fainting while giving a political speech is not generally considered a good career move. it’s the AUDIENCE that should be left breathless…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.