OMG, and I never say that...

[senseandsensibility]

I am in my fifties, was VERY politically disconnected in the 80's, not a Democrat, and more interested in celebrity gossip than current events. I am fifteen years younger than "Hill", (while she was already the first lady of Arkansas), AND EVEN I KNEW THAT THE REAGANS DID NOT CHAMPION AIDS CAUSES. So again, OMG.

[senseandsensibility]

1. Thanks for the recs, but I'd like to hear others' thoughts.

This was common knowledge in the eighties.

[cherokeeprogressive]

3. She obviously never read the book "And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic"

I'm guessing she never saw the movie it spawned either.

Ronaldus Maximus probably forbade it, just like he forbade any discussion of the HIV virus and AIDS.

[silvershadow]

2. She was just fishing for crossover votes, I am sure. They are her people. nt

[lady lib]

27. That really is the ONLY explanation. nt

[LiberalElite]

29. Yes. She used a funeral as a backdrop for impromptu campaigning -

It's one thing to say nice things about the dead but nowhere does tradition require that you present total fantasy as truth.

[silvershadow]

30. Nancy would have wanted it that way? I can't explain it... nt

[winter is coming]

4. Everyone I knew in the 80s knew the Reagan Administration wasn't doing jack,

but I had gay friends. Maybe other folks who lived in a bubble didn't know, but I don't see how Hillary could have been ignorant--nor how she could have remained ignorant.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. "nor how she could have remained ignorant."

She thinks Kissinger is cool.

[pdsimdars]

8. case and point

or
game, set, match

[Enthusiast]

14. I think the Kissinger thing is the most telling of all. nt

[Docreed2003]

5. My father, a dentist, was a staunch Reagan supporter...

I cut him some slack in some ways because he was more of a Eisenhower republican than today's GOP, but I can vividly remember as a child in the 80's, my father diagnosing patients with HIV/AIDS and the frustration that he had with the Regan administration for ignoring the issue. I can still recall watching the movie "And the band played on" with him as a young teenager and his visceral anger about how people in positions of power stuck their heads in the sand. I've known from a young age that the Reagan administration stonewalled the epidemic, mostly because it was viewed as a gay issue. Sec Clinton's remarks today weren't a misstep or a gaffe, that's what she believes. She witnessed that era of history with the eyes of an adult, and there's no excusing this as a simple "I misspoke"

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. The criticism of their silence was deafening.

[pdsimdars]

9. Just one more "wrong side of an issue" and the subsequent apology when the sunlight shines in

What else is new?

[MFM008]

10. just a mispeak

and I dont care. Wont keep me from voting for her. I voted for Reagan. It was my first and last vote for a republican in 1984.

[PonyUp]

11. Sorry, but if you vote for Hillary, your last sentence is wrong. nt

[Pat Riots]

26. ^^^^^

this!

[Hydra]

16. See, and that's the problem

Hillary doesn't care either.

[mmonk]

12. Totally bizarre if you ask me.

[Enthusiast]

13. Kicked and recommended! Seems we all knew that at the time.

Reagan was on the wrong side of everything. He is undeserving of any praise for any reason that I can think of.

[Lucinda]

15. I think she was talking about what Nancy did behind the scenes talked about here:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/nancy-reagan/2011/01/other-headline-9.html

[noamnety]

17. It's like so many other issues.

From the large ones: People on DU and out in the world knew overwhelmingly that going to war in Iraq was bullshit, but she still managed to misspeak when she voted YES to the war resolution.

to the smallest: Most of us who are named after someone famous - at some point in out lives - take 2 minutes to find out about the person we are named after, especially if it's important enough to us that we keep telling the story to others. It's inconceivable to me that she would either lie about it, or be so unbelievably incurious about the world that revolves around her that she never would have read a single thing about Edmund Hillary, even as an adult.

On the AIDS issue - either she lied, or she was that incurious and sheltered from it at the time that she just didn't care, and the only thing that seeped into her brain about the AIDS crisis was that Nancy was friends with Rock Hudson - in the same way that Chelsea doesn't really think about money.

[Punkingal]

18. Yep, during much of the eighties I didn't have tv or pay much attention.

But I knew Reagan f'cked up with regard to AIDS. They simply didn't give a shit.

[bigwillq]

19. OMG, indeed.

Hard to believe. Well, not really when it comes to Hillary.

K and R

[vintx]

20. But for her supporters here to push the 'she misspoke! she apologized!' crap?

That's beyond the pale IMO.

These people know better. There is no way she was ignorant of what went on, and telling blatant lies is not 'misspeaking'.

[bigwillq]

21. Supporters can do what they want.

I rarely criticize supporters.

I'm more interested in what the candidates have to say, and will criticize accordingly.

[vintx]

22. Yeah, I should ignore it.

But seriously some of the shit I read posted by people here is seriously fucking shocking.

[bigwillq]

23. Goes both ways

I've seen some the same behavior in some cases from Bernie supporters. But, like I said, supporters can do what they want. I'm not really interested in what the supporters have to say. They're free to say what they want.

[vintx]

24. Yep, I've seen two threads this morning started by Bernie supporters that are pretty bad.

One a list of made up shit that Hillary never said, the other an OP that was just about the person posting the OP and not anything to do with the primaries at all. Ego-tripping nonsense.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. The Clintons both knew, they were actively informed by many brave people

THE 1992 CAMPAIGN
AIDS Protester Provokes Clinton's Anger
The New York Times Late Edition
By ROBIN TONER 27 March 1992

Gov. Bill Clinton, impassioned and angry and hoarse, defended his political character and his record on AIDS yesterday in an emotional exchange with an AIDS protester at a midtown supper club.

Mr. Clinton was just beginning his standard political speech when the protester demanded: "What are you going to do about AIDS? We're dying!"

Mr. Clinton tried to defuse the situation, telling the man, "I know how much it hurts; I have friends dying of AIDS." But the protester persisted, shouting, "We're not dying of AIDS as much as we're dying of 11 years of Government neglect."
The Associated Press identified the protester as Bob Rafsky, a member of the AIDS activism group Act-Up.
-------------------------------------------------
Following are excerpts from an exchange on Thursday between Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Bob Rafsky, a member of the AIDS activism group Act Up, at Laura Belle, a nightclub in Midtown Manhattan, as recorded by the Cable News Network:

(Heckling begins)

RAFSKY. This is the center of the AIDS epidemic, what are you going to do? Are you going to start a war on AIDS? Are you going to just go on and ignore it? Are you going declare war on AIDS? Are you going to put somebody in charge? Are you going to do more than you did as the Governor of Arkansas? We're dying in this state. What are you going to do about AIDS?

CLINTON. Can we talk now?

RAFSKY. Go ahead and talk.

CLINTON. Most places where I go, nobody wants to talk. They want us to listen to them. I'm listening. You can talk. I know how it hurts. I've got friends who've died of AIDS.

RAFSKY. Bill, we're not dying of AIDS as much as we are from 11 years of Government neglect.

CLINTON. And that's why I'm running for President, to do something about it. I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll tell you what I'd do. First of all I would not just talk about it in campaign speeches; it would become a part of my obsession as President. There are two AIDS Commission reports gathering dust somewhere in the White House, presented by commissions appointed by a Republican President. There's some good recommendations in there. I would implement the recommendations of the AIDS Commission. I would broaden the H.I.V. definition to include women and I.V. drug users, for more research and development and treatment purposes.

RAFSKY. (interrupting and unintelligible). . . .you know it's true.

CLINTON. Would you just calm down?

RAFSKY. You're dying of (unintelligible). . . .

CLINTON. Let me tell you something. If I were dying of ambition, I wouldn't have stood up here and put up with all this crap I've put up with for the last six months. I'm fighting to change this country.

And let me tell you something else. Let me tell you something else. You do not have the right to treat any human being, including me, with no respect because of what you're worried about. I did not cause it. I'm trying to do something about it. I have treated you and all the people who've interrupted my rally with a hell of a lot more respect than you've treated me, and it's time you started thinking about that.

I feel your pain, I feel your pain, but if you want to attack me personally you're no better than Jerry Brown and all the rest of these people who say whatever sounds good at the moment. If you want something to be done, you ask me a question and you listen. If you don't agree with me, go support somebody else for President but quit talking to me like that. This is not a matter of personal attack; it's a matter of human wrong.

You can be for George Bush, you can be for somebody else, but do not stand up here at my rally, where other people paid to come, and insult me without -- listen, that's fine, I'll give you your money back if you want it, out of my own pocket.

I understand that you're hurting, but you won't stop hurting by trying to hurt other people. That's what I try to tell all you folks. You're not going to stop hurting by trying to hurt other people.

The reason I'm still in public life is because I've kept my commitments. That's why I'm still here. That's why I'm still standing here. And I'm sick and tired of all these people who don't know me, know nothing about my life, know nothing about the battles that I've fought, know nothing about the life I've lived, making snotty-nose remarks about how I haven't done anything in my life and it's all driven ambition. That's bull, and I'm tired of it."
-------------------------------
23 February 1993 The Washington Post by Jay Mathews

Robert Rafsky, 47, a writer and publicist whose televised confrontation with presidential candidate Bill Clinton galvanized the anti-AIDS movement, died Feb. 20 at New York University Hospital. He had AIDS.

Just under two months after Bill was Inaugurated. "Calm down, that's bull, I'm tired of it!!!!"
http://www.actupny.org/divatv/netcasts/rafsky_reads.html

[senseandsensibility]

28. Well, I will just kick this

because I do think I had a point.