Thursday 21 July 2011

Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and medical letters - A comparison


Medical records of candidates in presidential elections are always of great interest.

The strategist behind former President George W. Bush is now handing out advice to presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

“It’s going to be important for her to get her doctors out there, quickly,” Rove said, ”to provide the medical records and to provide the reassurance that people are going to want to have.”

During the 2008 elections, buzz surrounding John McCain’s physical capability to serve as president forced him to produce over 1,000 pages of medical records. The then-71-year-old McCain, who would have been the oldest president ever to serve, was a prisoner of war and a cancer survivor, but doctors still found him fit to serve.

Not a word about Sarah Palin, who released her medical "records" late on the eve of the election.

Here's a letter from Michele Bachmann's doctor:

Letter courtesy of Think Progress

It's typed on headed paper and the text sits straight on the page. The tone is professional and the doctor didn't feel it necessary to devote a whole paragraph to his qualifications and awards.

Now look at the letter from Sarah Palin's doctor:

[These screenshots are too small for comfortable reading of the contents. I included them to compare how the text sits on the page. To read the full contents, please click on the thumbnails at the bottom of the post.]



For some peculiar reason, the text doesn't line up with the header and the information is vague. There are too many details about Trig, who's named in the letter, even though he wasn't the candidate. [At least we were spared the details of all Michele Bachmann's children and foster children...]

Michelle Bachmann released this letter some 16 months before the election and she's not yet the GOP nominee. Sarah Palin teased the world with her open book life, and even said "if" her medical records were released. They were, a few hours before voters headed to the polling booths, because Americans deserve to know...



Well, well...

Hey Bristol, it looks like Michele Bachmann decided not to copy your mom after all!



Please click on each
thumbnail to enlarge
(H/T to Pallottine)