I can accept that Hillary "mis-spoke", got her memories confused, or whatever.

[Tom Rinaldo]

I can also accept her impulse to look for nice things to say about Nancy Reagan on a day while our nations flags were flying at half mast in her honor. It's not plausible to me that Hillary was intentionally and knowingly telling a lie, even though her statement was untrue. The potential upside from saying nice things about Nancy Reagan and the AIDS epidemic was minimal when virtually any "nice" compliment about Nancy would have served just as well. The downside potential over this with some of her supporters, in the middle of a heated campaign, however is serious. This was a mistake on her part, the question then is this; how could Hillary make it?

I'm a boomer same as Hillary, just a couple of years younger than she, and I was in my prime as an activist during the 1980's. Ronald Reagan winning the Presidency was, to take a phrase from our Vice President, "a big fucking deal". So was the AIDS epidemic in the Gay community. AIDS was first clinically observed in the United States in 1981. By September 1982 the Center for Disease Control started referring to the disease as AIDS. Rock Hudson became one of the first high-profile Americans to die of the disease in October of 1985, after publicly announcing he had it in July. It was impossible to have cared about the AIDS epidemic at the time and not be furious with Ronald Reagan. It wasn't until October 1987 that President Reagan publicly spoke about the AIDS epidemic.

His refusal to address the health crisis killing tens of thousands of Americas was a major topic of national discussion in activist circles in the mid 1980's. For those who either were gay or cared about gay people in their lives, it was absolutely infuriating. I'm straight and I only knew a few gay men personally at the time but I sure as hell knew that NOTHING was coming out of the Reagan Administration back then that addressed the AIDS epidemic. Some details can slip in your memory over time. The dates I mention above had grown foggy to me until I looked them up again. But you don't get the essential narrative totally confused if you were angry about it at the time. Hillary Clinton, unlike me, wasn't a grass roots activist during the mid 1980's. She was the First Lady of Arkansas from 1983 to 1992. I can only conclude that the AIDS epidemic wasn't high on her personal agenda prior to when President Reagan acknowledged it in 1987. You don't forget something like his unconscionable delay if it was.

[mikehiggins]

1. So the point of your post is that AIDS wasn't high on HRC's list of priorities?

The ability of some people to look past reality to support individuals in whatever they do, no matter how wrong, is amazing to me.

Nancy Reagan and her husband did NOTHING for AIDS victims. What part of that FACT is hard to grasp, except for the fact itself?

Obama had no need for health care reform himself. That didn't stop him from trying to wrestle some coverage for millions of people in the face of absolute opposition from many quarters. That is leadership. The Reagan response to AIDS, by ignoring and laughing at the topic while millions were infected and unknown numbers died, is cold, callous disregard for people based on their sexual identity.

How could anyone who lived through that not know that? Certainly the Clinton FOUNDATION has done good work on a global basis. How does that excuse lying in public about Nancy Reagan's history in regard to all those dead?

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Huh? No sure what you think I'm saying

First, I don't support Hillary. I just don't think she was telling an intentional lie. If for no other reason than that would have been an extremely stupid thing for her to have consciously chosen to do. There were minimally hundreds of thousands of people watching that interview. The odds of her getting caught in a lie were very high, the downside for that very high as well. And to achieve what? Score some brownie points with moderate Republicans? She could have done that just by talking about stem cell research, or how devoted Nancy was to Ronnie during his declining years, or whatever.

I do think it is telling, like a poster below noted, that she could make this unforced error. I'm suggesting that Hillary just wasn't thinking about the AIDS epidemic and who it was striking, back in the day, which is how she could get something like this so terribly wrong. And to me that is troubling, since she has never denied that she was in a sense the co-governor of a state at the time, half of a political team running Arkansas.

[Aerows]

2. I can't believe she said that.

I'm damned stunned.

[Schema Thing]

3. IF she "misspoke", then it's cognitive decline OR it just didn't matter to her as much as it should

those are the two scenarios which would allow for a mis-remembering of important history.

[bkkyosemite]

4. And the pic of Bernie behind her on healthcare..is her memory okay.