Hillary Clinton Lauds Reagans on AIDS. Gay Twitter Erupts.

[jpak]

Source: New York Times

In the days since Nancy Reagan’s death on Sunday, she has been praised for her work on a range of causes, from preventing drug abuse to supporting Alzheimer’s disease research.

But on Friday, Hillary Clinton praised Mrs. Reagan as a force in confronting another disease: HIV/AIDS, which was killing alarming numbers of gay men and others during Ronald Reagan’s two terms.

“It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s,” Mrs. Clinton, who was attending Mrs. Reagan’s funeral in Simi Valley, Calif., told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan – in particular, Mrs. Reagan – we started a national conversation, when before nobody would talk about it. Nobody wanted
anything to do with it.”

The problem with Mrs. Clinton’s compliment: It was the Reagans who wanted nothing to do with the disease at the time.

<more>

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/11/hillary-clinton-lauds-reagans-on-aids-gay-twitter-erupts/?_r=0

[bigwillq]

1. I didn't know Twitter was gay.

And I'm sure non-gays also had issue with Mrs. Clinton's remarks.

[sarge43]

3. Thank you

This one does.

[Major Nikon]

4. I always suspected there was something going on between twitter and instagram

[bigwillq]

7. Mrs. Clinton does not approve of same-social marriage.

Unless Bernie approves of it first, then she will be all for it and proclaim she's a champion of same-social marriage.

[Major Nikon]

11. That's just not fair at all

Everyone knows HRC checks the opinion polls before she evolves on the issues.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

70. They sure do seem to be attached at the hip.

[redwitch]

29. LOL!

Gay Twitter made me laugh have to admit. I for one think equating Nancy Reagan with starting the conversation about HIV/AIDS is shocking. She turned her back on her dear friend Rock Hudson which was absolutely awful.

[840high]

52. I remember.

[zentrum]

31. Exactly so.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

69. It was only the gay part of twitter that erupted

The non-gay part of the twitterverse was boiling and came very close to erupting, as well.

[Ilsa]

2. What the hell is she doing?

Has she gone senile? Is she intentionally rewriting history to get Raygun Dems' votes, while ignoring the support of HIV/AIDS victims, survivors, and their loved ones?

This is crazy. Nancy Reagan has many things to be complimented for. This isn't one of them.

[EndElectoral]

6. Clueless

[rhett o rick]

15. The upper crust stick together no matter which party they belong. Clinton sometimes forgets

which party she belongs, like when she voted for the Iraq War.

[Enthusiast]

64. Massive +1!

[OwlinAZ]

88. This has happened before

She lies and panders always saving then ugliest of her vitriol for those in her own Party.
Electing her would be a big mistake.

[kcjohn1]

8. She is pathological liar

Lying and pandering comes so easy to her. Whatever crowd she is with she tries to please. One day she is proud to be called "moderate" and "center", and the next she is telling us she is progressive who likes to get things done.

Many politicians are like this. They are just lot better than her. For someone who is a bad liar, she should stop lying and things would be so much better for her.

[zentrum]

33. Yes. She's angling

…for Raygun votes and LGBT votes. It's a two-fer in her calculations.

[840high]

59. She's kissing her rich friends.

[JackRiddler]

61. Blather and pander. Pander and blather...

Do it long enough and you lose track of your own bullshit.

This was a pure own goal. Kicked it right in. No reason, nothing whatsoever to be gained from it.

[Major Hogwash]

71. Blowing it . . . big time.

There isn't a day that goes by where she says something totally disconnected to reality.

[Ilsa]

73. I was reading something else written here:

Her campaign has written off most progressives and Bernie supporters in the GE. She's counting on moderate Republicans and 3rd Way/Conservative Dems to carry her.

[Major Hogwash]

75. She just lost New York state today because of these comments.

New Yorkers will not look the other way now.
They will not "hold their nose" and vote for her now.
She has come completely unhinged.

[Geronimoe]

5. That conversation began via massive protests

Hillary still acts like gays are 2nd class citizens. A difficult conversation? It was a virus killing people!

[Ilsa]

13. I remember! It took ridiculously extreme protests to

get the public to pay attention at all. My friends and I lost friends, patients, to HIV/AIDS and related illnesses. I sat across from my husband's coworker's wife, who refused to mourn the loss of her little brother to the disease, "because he brought it on himself, not living the way God intended." Since we were in a business-related setting, I just sat there in shock that anyone could be so cruel about her family. (I didn't want to get hubby fired.)

[Kall]

9. What does "I misspoke" even mean to her?

I mean, apparently it applies to this and weeks-long lies about being under Bosnian sniper fire.

[sofa king]

22. Intentional or not, it's a powerful backhand at Nancy.

Nancy Reagan condemned her former friend Rock Hudson to a grisly death by refusing to request his transfer to a particular hospital in France, where Hudson's doctor could treat him. She could have intervened on his behalf and at least alleviated his suffering as he was dying of AIDS, but she refused.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/nancy-reagan-turned-down-rock-hudsons-plea-for-help-seven-we#.gfdBqj24go

As a direct result of that, Hudson's publicist decided to go public with the AIDS story, which completely changed, well, damned near everything, eventually.

So Mrs. Clinton is telling a hard, dark truth when she says that "both President and Mrs. Reagan – in particular, Mrs. Reagan" started a national conversation about AIDS--by refusing to help, is the silent parenthetical that we can all sneer about.

It's a pretty damned clever way to say that Nancy Reagan was an evil witch who betrayed her friends, but that's what I see Mrs. Clinton saying in that statement--and it's all wrapped up in the usual bullshit sentimentality so that the knuckledraggers will never notice.

But we can notice.

[Kalidurga]

78. I sincerely hope you have some assistance in getting back up.

[sofa king]

85. Not sure I understand.

I am not defending Mrs. Clinton's honesty, here. I am applauding the dark cynicism of her press agent, for offering a statement complimentary enough for conservative assholes to ignore, yet venomous enough to remind the better informed of us about the real Reagan legacy of murderous hatred, inequality, betrayal and dishonesty.

[Kalidurga]

86. Well that spin would have made me fall.

And yes that did sound like a lame defense, no matter how imaginative.

[sofa king]

87. Sorry if I offended you.

I know this is a touchy subject and I'm really not trying to hurt any feelings.

I can easily be wrong, too, because the safe play at this point is for the HRC camp to hold its silence and never speak of this again. So I will never know for sure.

[Kalidurga]

90. It is never a good thing to defend something like this.

If Bernie had gone to an Osama bin Laden funeral and talked about him giving money to orphans in the US (that didn't happen I am sure), I wouldn't defend that. Now Nancy Reagan didn't kill thousands of people. Reagan did that. He killed a whole lot of people by not having resources put in place to stop things like the blood banks getting blood with the virus in it, by not educating the public the virus was out there and they should take precautions to have safer sex, and the early funding was a joke. On top of that I have seen how effective the WH can be in reducing cultural stigmatization. No President can make people nicer to each other, but I have seen how President Obama changed culture almost overnight on gay marriage. Now about the only people I see talking bad about that are rabid right wingers. Ronald Reagan could have done the same thing as Princes Diana. He could have introduced his friend Rock Hudson to the United States as his friend first and foremost and as a victim of the AIDS virus.

[Herman4747]

28. Aw, yes, you remember her "misspeaking" about the Bosnia sniper fire...

[exxo1111]

38. What does "I misspoke" even mean to her?

I read that her advisers have told her to never say I made a "mistake". Or say the word "mistake". It weakens her position. Makes her look soft.


Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........................................................

Given the polls, her problem isn't being perceived as soft, but as honest. She should say after one of these whoppers ----- Gee, I made a mistake, I meant--- blah, blah, blah. Don't know if it will help, but it will look better.

[fbc]

10. When you live in a third way echo chamber, Reagan is p.cool

[rhett o rick]

16. That's a good way to put it. The Third Way is bi-partisan. nm

[Hissyspit]

17. +100

[Maedhros]

12. Will she be praising Ray Cohn next? [n/t]

[Doctor_J]

14. Since she is still against gay marriage, and has been since ever, this will not sway

her gay fan club. they already know shes an enemy and choose to ignore it.

[nichomachus]

18. Well, now she's apologized for her remarks

Adding a flip to her flop.

Maybe she should have run this through a few more focus groups.

I fully expect her to retract her apology at some point.

[Major Nikon]

23. Here's the apology

http://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/708403247795539968/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

It's worth noting she isn't apologizing to the people she hurt with her comments, but instead is apologizing for merely making a factual error.

[Arazi]

40. Just hears on NPR she's now,trying to spin this as she meant Alzheimer's

but no way. Nobody was stigmatizing Alzheimer's, ever

“It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s,” Mrs. Clinton, who was attending Mrs. Reagan’s funeral in Simi Valley, Calif., told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan – in particular, Mrs. Reagan – we started a national conversation, when before nobody would talk about it. Nobody wanted anything to do with it

[Major Nikon]

48. She also made a big deal about how she knew Nancy so well

So yeah, time to put the boots on because the bullshit is getting pretty deep.

[elljay]

53. Reagan's Alzheimer's was announced in 1994

so Nancy certainly did not start a national conversation on the subject in the 80s. In fact, it is very likely that Reagan's Alzheimers began during the Reagan presidency and this was known by Nancy. However, she hid this knowledge, apparently because she valued power more than she respected the security of our country and the rights of Americans to have a president who was fully mentally competent.

https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/reference/alzheimerletter.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201101/when-did-reagans-first-signs-alzheimers-appear

[Major Nikon]

74. Saint Ronnie forgot the names of his own cabinet members

He also toasted the people of Bolivia while in Brazil and told a fake Medal of Honor story to a group of real Medal of Honor recipients. His handlers increasingly kept him away from the press and impromptu questions farther into his presiduncy.

[elljay]

76. The party of national security

[nilram]

77. She could be right. Reagan's term ended Jan 1989

and we were talking about his Alzheimer's all during his term, not just after he was diagnosed.

[Feeling the Bern]

19. Okay, LGBT Clinton fans. . .between her love of DOMA and her new found love of Reagan's

HIV/AIDS non-policy in the 1980s because AIDS was considered a gay disease and the Reagans were well known homophobes, explain your support for Clinton now.

I'm sure it will be enlightening

[Cavallo]

26. They may still be in General Discussion:Primaries defending Regan.

And they were citing articles on how well he did fighting aids - one Hillary supporter presented Regan's mass funding to fight Aids(?) as a secret that should be more well known...

[Feeling the Bern]

35. if hrc loves goldwater, kissinger and now reagan, i guess they were good democrats

:sarcam:

hrc shills have nothing left but atwater tactics and rovian lies. duers supporting reagan? hrc fans have lost their damn minds.

[GoldenMean]

20. Paging Rachel Maddow

I just posted on her facebook page.
How about that Hillary praising Nancy Reagan for her AIDS legacy!
That sound you hear is Rock Hudson doing 1000 rpm.
Oh!, hold on she misspoke!
That sound you hear is the Hillary Express crashing into reverse.

[tabasco]

21. Not only pandering to republicans, buy LYING to do so.

Clinton is proving herself unfit to be the Democratic nominee.

[KamaAina]

24. GD-P erupts as well.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511469992

[chervilant]

25. This:

“While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, I misspoke about their record on H.I.V. and AIDS,” she said in a statement about two hours after her interview had been shown on MSNBC. “For that, I’m sorry.”

She "misspoke." She seems to do that a lot.

[840high]

65. Will she misspeak at 3AM phone call?

[Enrique]

27. there was a time when she would have gotten away with it

the media would have lauded her bipartisanship, never mind pointing out the facts. those days are gone.

[LS_Editor]

30. #HillaryLies

[Boomer]

32. This is unforgiveable.

It is absolutely disgusting that she is either 1) so completely clueless about one of the most shameful periods of gay history in this country or 2) she is so eager to pander to the Republicans that she would fabricate this lie. TENS OF THOUSANDS of gay men died because of the Reagans.

[stupidicus]

34. I despise the woman, but she was big enough to correct the record and apologize

It seems like she can't help but screw it up, in praise or in an effort to bury...

Maybe Bernie should remind her of her offenses of the smearing kind and how good it is for a troubled soul to fess up and seek forgiveness -- which always carries a price. As penance, she could pledge to never do it again and say "I felt the burn!" a few times...lol.

[Bluenorthwest]

39. She had to. She is running for President as Ms Recently Pro Gay. She had no choice no matter how

big she may or may not be, to not do so would be political suicide. She's going to lose voters over this, no doubt about it.

[stupidicus]

47. yep, that's the aggravating factor

her being compelled to versus choosing to do the right thing.

The ability to acknowledge a mistake, etc, is a desirable quality in a leader, and that's about the only good thing to be said about this situation. Given the self-serving nature of the act here it's hard to give it any mitigation value.

[Depaysement]

79. "Ms Recently Pro Gay"

[ConsiderThis_2016]

84. "she was big enough to correct the record"

David Brock giggled when he read that.

[George II]

36. Her error was quickly corrected. I'm just sorry that Sanders supporters are using this.......

.......as a fake "scandal".

Her record speaks much louder than a single mistake which, again, was quickly corrected.

[Boomer]

41. This is not a fake scandal

This is slap in the face to the gay community. This isn't ancient history for many of us; we lived through this. THOUSANDS of gay men died as a result of the Reagans' distaste for us.

To hear a casual revisionist version of one of the most painful and shameful eras of gay life in this country may mean nothing to you, but I'm still livid over it.

[George II]

43. Actually it's not a fake scandal, it's a non-existent scandal. I wish I could expound on some of...

...Sanders' comments during this campaign and over the years, but I don't want my posts hidden.

Bye!

[EvolveOrConvolve]

42. You mean her record of being anti-gay until

it became politically expedient to not be anti-gay?

[George II]

46. She was never anti-gay. EVER!

[BeanMusical]

49. OFFS.

[Major Nikon]

57. To be fair, HRC only supported DOMA because she was defending gay interests

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/10/28/hillary-clintons-claim-that-doma-had-to-be-enacted-to-stop-an-anti-gay-marriage-amendment-to-the-u-s-constitution/



...and it's just a coincidence that she evolved on gay marriage the exact same year public opinion went over 50%.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/183272/record-high-americans-support-sex-marriage.aspx

[BeanMusical]

63. +1

She's so misunderstood.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

50. Her own words

"I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and

It's really hard to argue that her opposition to gay marriage isn't anti-gay. She sounds almost like a Republican here:

[morningfog]

56. Yes she was. She used to promote bigoted anti-gay positions.

And now praises the fucking Reagan administration on their AIDS policies.

I don't know if you lived in the US in the 80s, there is nothing to praise from them.

[DeadLetterOffice]

58. Does screaming it make it less false? n/t

[morningfog]

51. "Corrected" after her ads was handed to her.

Not a scandal, a major gaffe.

She's either clueless or believes that the fucking Reagans were noble on the issue of AIDS. They weren't.

[winter is coming]

83. I think you meant to say "ass", not "ads." *That* is an example of mispeaking.

Not the shit HRC tried to pull today. The notion that she was ignorant of what was happening during the 80s and stayed ignorant about it... no fucking way.

[840high]

66. Not fake - unless you call her words fake.

[roody]

82. Sounds like dementia (memory loss) to me.

[OwlinAZ]

89. These campaigns are gruelling

[Bluenorthwest]

37. WNBC - TV News coverage of ACT UP's Target City Hall, March 28, 1989

[bvf]

44. She's running out of demographics to alienate.

Unbelievable. Condescension and outright lies in one nice, neat package.

[FighttheFuture]

45. My memory of AIDS and how Reagan addressed it is not this way. Hillary pukes up another furball!!!

[840high]

67. Nancy told Hudson - NO help.

[Scootaloo]

54. My mind is not flexible enough to wrap around this

Clinton praised... the Reagans on their response to HIV/AIDS?

Part of me is like "noooo, no she couldn't have... no."

But... there it is.

[Dont call me Shirley]

55. KnR!

[elmac]

60. Republicans are much better at rewriting history

and naming post offices after ronny raygon

[liberalnarb]

62. Jesus. That sounds like something someone in the fox "news" bubble would say.

[Enthusiast]

68. Kicked and recommended to the Max!

[RoccoR5955]

72. Reagan killed my brother!

When Reagan stated that AIDS was a "Gay Cancer," and refused to give any funds for early research, he, in effect killed my brother. His wife was part of the players during that time.
Clinton's lie about Mrs Raygun being part of starting the national conversation had lost her vote from me for ETERNITY!

[Duckfan]

80. Foot planted firmly in mouth.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

81. As someone who lived in one of the epicenters --

of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s and watched a whole lotta people die here in SF, I have to say that is one of the more "interesting" bits of revisionist history I have ever had the displeasure of hearing.

There are some things that should never be forgotten by people, and how our government and leaders reacted (or didn't) during one of the biggest health crises the world has ever faced is one.

Glad she had the decency to correct her remarks.