Over at Greg's I take on Michele Bachmann's attack on the Pigford Settlement in light of the subsidies her own family farm has received. Dana Goldstein rebuts a story in the Daily Caller that implies Bachmann's migraines might stop her from being an effective president.
>Many famous, high-achieving people have been migraine sufferers, including Ulysses Grant and Thomas Jefferson. (At Appomattox in 1865, Grant reportedly had a migraine that miraculously lifted upon receiving a letter from Robert E. Lee arranging their first ceasefire meeting.) Among athletes, Dwyane Wade and Monica Seles are migraineurs; Seles missed just two matches due to migraine in her entire career, and Wade is well-known for practicing and playing through his pain. I could go on and on: Charles Darwin. Sigmeund Freud. Claude Monet. Virginia Woolf.
Of course, the modern presidency is a uniquely stressful and fast-paced job. But modern medicine is also uniquely able to respond to chronic pain.
Other presidents with serious health problems could include John F. Kennedy, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt. It's not that stuff like this shouldn't be public knowledge given the responsibilities of the presidency but the DC story also not so subtly implies Bachmann might have a drug problem ("heavy pill use alleged") without making that claim outright. The story seems almost designed to confirm the Columbia Journalism Review's assessment of their content.
