Michele Bachmann: Too Hot To Be President?

A few days ago the Daily Caller, a conservative website, broke the story that Michele Bachmann suffers from debilitating migraines that may disqualify her from serving as president.  The story set off a wave of debate regarding Bachmann’s medical condition and what it meant for her presidential campaign. According to the story, “The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can ‘incapacitate her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.”

The worry, of course, is that this might make her unfit to be president. “Bachmann’s medical condition wouldn’t merit public attention, but for the fact she is running for president. Some close to Bachmann fear she won’t be equal to the stress of the campaign, much less the presidency itself.”  Although Bachmann has had this condition long before she entered Congress, the unnamed sources went public now because “they are terrified about the impact the condition could have on Bachmann’s performance if she actually became president. They also worry that the issue could blow up in the general election campaign, giving President Obama an easy path to re-election.”

Really?  She’s unfit to be president because she has migraines? Both Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant suffered from migraines. John F. Kennedy reportedly suffered from severe headaches if he didn’t have sex frequently enough (evidently any reasonably attractive woman would do).  No one questioned their capacity to be president.  I wonder whether this would even be an issue if it were Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty or any of the other male candidates who suffered from migraines.

But that doesn’t mean I think Bachmann is qualified to be president. Here’s what really concerns me.

Hot flashes.

Let’s be candid here.  We are all adults. The woman is 55 – prime age for menopause.  That means she’s susceptible to mood swings, forgetfulness, trouble sleeping, fatigue and night sweats.  Talk about being incapacitated!

Remember Hillary Clinton’s 3 a.m. phone call? What if Michelle gets this in the midst of a hot flash?  The missiles will be flying before she understands what she’s done!  Or consider a particular tense face-to-face negotiation with a foreign leader – say, Moammar Khadafy – and suddenly Bachmann’s face flushes. That could be easily misinterpreted.

Or, she’s in the middle of a key diplomatic meeting with Arab leaders and suddenly has the need to take her jacket off to cool down.

I’m just saying.

Let’s be clear – I’m not blaming her.  She’s a woman of a certain age – hot flashes go with the territory.  And yes, I understand that women have been elected to leadership positions in other nations. But we are talking about the United States of America!  It is true that some of our male presidents had their own medical issues. Lincoln suffered from bouts of depression, but it didn’t stop him from freeing the slaves. Roosevelt had congestive heart failure, died in office, and probably never should have run for a fourth term, but we at least got three good terms from him.  Eisenhower suffered a heart attack at the start of his second term, but I wouldn’t say he was incapacitated – he just spent a couple of weeks resting.  Kennedy?  His Addison’s disease was treatable with daily injections that kept him alive. True, the additional daily amphetamine-laced shots he received for his back pain might have affected his judgment a wee bit, but in a crisis he could handle it. And Clinton?  Yes, we all knew he was a compulsive womanizer, but that was his private life – it’s not like it would affect his public performance or anything.

I hope my point is clear.  All these presidents had problems that did, or potentially could have proved incapacitating, but we elected them anyway because they knew how to handle these things. In comparison, how do we know Bachmann is tough enough to handle hot flashes?

I understand that she’s served a couple terms in Congress, and during that time her voting attendance record surpassed most of her colleagues, but nonetheless, she missed close to 5% of the votes.  How many of these were menopause related?

Look, I understand that this is a sensitive topic.  But it’s not like I’m calling her a flake or “too sensitive” or anything sexist.  I just think we need to be reasonable here.   After all, we are talking about the most powerful position in the world.

Michele Bachman – She’s too hot to be President.