Monday, April 07, 2008

Yet another Hillary Whopper...


If you can't trust "Sir Edmund" on the small stuff, how are you gonna trust her on the big stuff?

Finally, there is Trina Bachtel, the 35-year-old woman from Meigs County, Ohio, who Clinton says died of complications from a pregnancy after hospital administrators refused her treatment because she lacked health insurance.

The story of Bachtel's death has become a central part of Clinton's campaign stump speech since she heard of the tragedy while campaigning in Ohio. She has used it as a modern-day parable to symbolize the plight facing 47 million Americans without health insurance and to promote her own plan for universal care.

When she speaks about Bachtel, her voice takes on the same grief-filled tone and cadence I heard in Memphis.

"She showed up and the hospital said, ‘You know, you've got to give us $100 before we can see you.' She didn't have $100," Clinton said during one campaign stop.

"So the young woman went back home. The next time she went back, she was in an ambulance. It turned out she lost the baby ... And after heroic efforts at the [Columbus] medical centre, she died."

Clinton told a North Dakota audience last week the tragedy leaves her "aching inside." But again she got it wrong. Her campaign agreed on the weekend to stop telling Bachtel's story at the request of O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio.

A review of medical records showed Bachtel had health insurance and was never denied treatment at the hospital, where she delivered her baby stillborn. Bachtel's grandmother has also denied Clinton's account.

"Trina had good insurance. She was a good girl, and she worked hard," May Mayle told the New York Post. "That story made her look like she was a welfare bum."

Not to mention that her story made for a P.R. nightmare for O'Bleness Hospital.

But, anything to make Hillary Clinton look good is fair game. After all, in the end, it is all about Hillary.