Photo courtesy of Chad J McNeeley, Wikipedia
s a voter trying to make the most informed decision possible when voting for the next President of the United States, the health of the candidates is definitely of valid concern to me. When choosing a candidate to support, I want to be sure that they are prepared in every aspect to assume presidency; this includes being of sound mind and body. I could not, in good conscience, vote for a candidate who was of failing health. We as voters have a right to know if it is a legitimate concern that a candidate could die or become ill to the point of being unable to carry forth the duties of the presidency during his or her time in office. This means that the people carrying out the duties of the President would not, in fact, be the candidate who was chosen by the people. I believe it should be required for candidates to release basic health information while running for president so that voters can feel secure in the fact they aren’t voting for someone in poor health.
However, I believe the recent outrage over Hillary Clinton leaving an event early has been blown way out of proportion. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of Clinton by any means, but do I believe that having pneumonia or feeling lightheaded makes her unfit to run for office? Absolutely not. There are many qualities I believe should disqualify Clinton from being President, but her health is not one of them. In fact, for a woman her age, her health is desirable for a presidential candidate. Furthermore, I also don’t think it was disrespectful of Clinton to leave the event early. If Clinton fainted at the event it would have halted the proceedings and the entirety of the focus would have shifted to her instead of staying on the 9/11 victims, where it should have been. Clinton quietly exiting the event before anything more dramatic happened was the appropriate thing to do in this situation. The outrage and obsession with Clinton’s health is taking away time and focus from more important issues occurring during this election cycle that voters need to see addressed. The media has a responsibility to cover more pressing issues than Clinton having heat exhaustion, and it is our job as voters to hold the media accountable to standards that ensure they are asking the important questions.
While the deciding factor when voting for President ultimately lies with which candidate’s policies you most closely align with, the health conditions of every major candidate running is something that should be on the radar of every informed citizen planning to vote. Ultimately, the president needs to be in suitable physical and mental health in order to serve the nation as president. In this election, we are fortunate to have presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates who seem to be physically capable of what the presidency will entail, so the health issue in this election should be put to rest.
tgilson@ramapo.edu
