I’m waiting for the late-night guys — and maybe it has happened already — to start in with the not-tonight-America-I’ve-got-a-headache jokes.
But while I can’t decide exactly what to make of the Michele Bachmann migraine story, I’m sure of one thing: There may be, conservatively speaking, a million reasons why Bachmann shouldn’t be president, but this isn’t one of them.
On Wednesday, Bachmann released a letter from her doctor saying that she was in “general good health” and that her migraines were basically under control.
My own diagnosis runs along these lines: If she occasionally has to lie down in a dark room — maybe to ease the pain, maybe to get away for a few moments of peace from Marcus and the 28 kids — who among us hasn’t been there?
Reportedly, she missed a day or so of work in Congress — for which, I think, we should be grateful; at least she wouldn’t have been voting to send the nation, say, into default — and had to stop by a few urgent care facilities while she was on the road. There may have been a hospitalization. These are all details that will be chased down.
I don’t have migraines, but like many people, I have family members who do. I’ve seen how debilitating the headaches can be.
But Bachmann has often had a full-time job or maybe two, as well as having, uh, raised all those kids. She says “my ability to function effectively has never been impeded by migraines and will not affect my ability to serve as commander in chief.”
OK, maybe you get the chills when you read those words, but I’ll bet you won’t miss more than a few days of work before you recover.
The migraines story appeared on the Daily Caller, a conservative website. It was all the talk among political junkies who follow the presidential race obsessively — in other words, people like me — but I doubt it has made much of a dent with the public, many of whom get headaches themselves.
As I said, I don’t really know how to assess the whole thing. It reads like your old-fashioned smear job, with the usual unnamed sources and reports from former staffers. It so happens that Bachmann, for whatever reason, has many former staffers, which may have something to do with why she has headaches.
Certainly, the Tea Party favorite is causing a major pain for establishment Republicans. The story broke on the very day that she took the lead in one national poll, passing Mitt Romney, who, I’m reliably told, has never had a headache. In the article, we were told about unknown pills that she takes — her doctor later identified them as sumatriptan and odansetron — and that a current adviser says of the migraines, “When she gets ’em, frankly, she can’t function at all.”
Many have asked whether this line of thinking is sexist. It’s a question you’ll keep hearing. The same question came up when Chris Wallace asked Bachmann whether she was a flake. And when Vin Weber said she was sexy.
We don’t know yet how to deal with women as presidential candidates. Do you remember the ugly things that were said about Hillary Clinton, for whom a story about migraines would have been a welcome relief? Does this mean that Sarah Palin — with whom Bachmann seems to be inevitably twinned — has headaches, too? I mean, besides Levi?
As the Daily Beast noted in an article, the Google computers placed an “ask the gynecologist” banner ad next to the Daily Caller headline. Migraines are about three times more likely to affect women. Also noted in the article, staffers past and present say that Bachmann has blamed her headaches on wearing high heels. Doctors say heels are more likely to cause foot-aches, but I’ll remember to ask Ken Buck next time I see him.
Whatever else this is, it’s definitely the kind of story that comes in a presidential campaign. Reportedly, Bachmann could have handled it better. According to Time magazine’s Michael Crowley, some of Bachmann’s security people pushed around ABC reporter Brian Ross when he tried to chase her down to ask about the migraine story.
But she’s hardly the only politician to have needed time in a dark room. Calvin Coolidge suffered from depression. Abraham Lincoln, maybe our greatest president, suffered from depression his whole life. Winston Churchill, though not technically an American, struggled with what he called his black dog.
There’s a long list of politicians who have had to deal with medical issues. FDR had polio. John Kennedy had Addison’s disease. In the last campaign, John McCain had to disclose information about his melanoma.
Bachmann has headaches. I just hope they’re not contagious.
Contact Mike Littwin at mlittwin@denverpost.com.
