The Vikings, Trump and Perspective

In case you missed it, the last two weeks of Minnesota Vikings football have been exciting.  Two weeks ago, after critics of the team and the team's quarterback, Kirk Cousins, complained about their inability to win a road game against a winning opponent, they won a nationally televised game at Dallas.  The next week, after being criticized for their inability to come from behind and win, they did just that, scoring on EVERY 2nd half possession to tally 27 points, and steal a win from Denver at home.

Many of the same people (both locally and nationally) who complained about Cousins ability didn't admit they were wrong in regards to the two victories.  Instead they criticized both wins as weak, claiming since both the games were on the line until the last play it showed another major fault.  It was no longer Cousins' inability to win against a good team on the road, or lead the Vikings to a comeback victory, it was 'Cousins is a failure because he didn't win both games by 50 points.'

Many of the same critics would have a VERY different interpretation of those two wins if Green Bay Packer Quarterback Aaron Rodgers had pulled them off.  They'd be gushing about how you have to admire Rodger's tenacity, and his ability to steal victories from the jaws of defeat. It's perspective.  Rodgers is a great quarterback (not top 25 of all time, but good, and he does have a Super Bowl ring he pretty much won himself, nearly ten years ago).  The love affair certain members of the media have with him allow them to over inflate everything he does, while many of the same media who dislike Cousins dismiss his victories even when they contradict the narrative they themselves have pushed.

Perspective drives the narrative of how an individual wants to see the world, and happens everywhere.  That being said, it doesn't make it any less obnoxious when the media does it to our faces.

In September of 2016, then Democratic Candidate Hillary Clinton had pneumonia.  She was undeniably weakened, but because much of our politics is based on appearances, she trudged through the campaign season.  On one occasion, she stumbled heading to her car after a 9/11 commemoration, and the media in this country went nuts!  They called her out for being seriously ill, having to be carried from event to event, accused of having a much more serious illness, and even accused of having extensive brain damage.  All from one stumble after an event.

Meanwhile Donald Trump, the man who inhabits the White House, had to be rushed to Walter Reed Medical Center under mysterious circumstances over the weekend. The White House has a full medial facility, top notch, staffed and ready to go, so for a President, on the weekend, unannounced, to have to be rushed to Walter Reed is a bit of a concern.

The White House said this was scheduled, but it never appeared on Trump's itinerary, an itinerary which was immediately scrapped, unexpectedly, when Trump was rushed to the hospital.  The White House is floating the story that Trump had a day off with nothing on the agenda (???) and decided to get a head start on 2020's annual physical.  That's not how annual physicals work.

None of that makes any sense, but the same media who constantly barraged Hillary with questions about her health is relegating their desire for truth to the back burner and acting as if all of this is normal.  It's not, and Trump should inform the American people if he, a 70+ year old man who hardly exercises, watches TV religiously, avoids vegetables and eats fast food constantly, is having a health problem.

(via The Onion)

I want Trump out of the White House, but not due to a serious health problem.  There's a responsibility by the media to at least demand the answer of what is going on.  They don't have to be as tenacious as they were with Hillary, but I would think "is the President healthy" is a basic question the news media shouldn't shrug their shoulders at.