Fainting Obamacare Speech Lady is a Fake

[scott]

Video shows it.

Ignore the commentary and just look at the two angles.

[phillygirl]

I disagree. I really can't believe they would stoop to county fair theatrics.

[Gingersnap]

Well, it's odd that the friend doesn't look at the woman - I sure would if I thought my friend was getting faint or sick. On the other hand, they are fairly random people standing right behind the President and they are aware that they are facing not only a crowd but cameras.

I have literally stepped over friends in marching band during competitions and performances (not during practices). It's a funny dynamic that happens when people are up in front of a crowd. The show must go on and all that. The embarrassment of excusing yourself and leaving seems worse than just toughing it out (and potentially fainting or blowing chunks).

It's irrational but there you are.

[phillygirl]

Well, it's odd that the friend doesn't look at the woman - I sure would if I thought my friend was getting faint or sick. On the other hand, they are fairly random people standing right behind the President and they are aware that they are facing not only a crowd but cameras.

I have literally stepped over friends in marching band during competitions and performances (not during practices). It's a funny dynamic that happens when people are up in front of a crowd. The show must go on and all that. The embarrassment of excusing yourself and leaving seems worse than just toughing it out (and potentially fainting or blowing chunks).

It's irrational but there you are.

5th grade, Christmas concert...front row. I passed out, but my grandfather literally ran up and caught me before I hit the floor and carried me out. I was too embarrassed to tell the teacher I didn't feel well, so I tried to gut it out. I was more embarrassed when I woke up in the nurse's office after the smelling salts and they told me what happened. I should have skipped out on the O Tannenbaum number.

[Gingersnap]

5th grade, Christmas concert...front row. I passed out, but my grandfather literally ran up and caught me before I hit the floor and carried me out. I was too embarrassed to tell the teacher I didn't feel well, so I tried to gut it out. I was more embarrassed when I woke up in the nurse's office after the smelling salts and they told me what happened. I should have skipped out on the O Tannenbaum number.

Pretty common. I mean, it's completely nuts but most of us would rather take the chance that we'll drop instead of just sitting it out offstage. I was in a horse performance thing once and one girl (I barely knew her) barfed right before we went on when we were still outside the ring. Our coach told her to sit it out but she didn't and she slid right off that horse about 3 seconds before we started in.

Her horse performed without her. I mean literally.

[phillygirl]

Pretty common. I mean, it's completely nuts but most of us would rather take the chance that we'll drop instead of just sitting it out offstage. I was in a horse performance thing once and one girl (I barely knew her) barfed right before we went on when we were still outside the ring. Our coach told her to sit it out but she didn't and she slid right off that horse about 3 seconds before we started in.

Her horse performed without her. I mean literally.

LOL! The night of the fainting incident was the dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker (3 performances that weekend). My dressing "room" was underneath and behind the orchestra pit which was kept at a nice cozy temperature of 127 degrees...I was in a parka, sweatpants and mittens for the entire time that I wasn't actually onstage. I managed not to pass out during my parts (although my mother did bring smelling salts just in case. It honestly would have been pretty much next to impossible to replace me at that point anyway, but there really was not even a mention by my family or me that perhaps I should sit something out. And there I was at school Monday morning after it was all over, because, well...Wednesday was Christmas and so I only had to get through 2 days of school and then I'd be on break, so....

And people wonder why I'm a workaholic now.

[Adam]

I disagree. I really can't believe they would stoop to county fair theatrics.

Oh, I most certainly can believe that they would. They have in the past.


But, this is a little tinfoily to me. The narrator does not take into account that the friend is no doubt terrified of being on live national TV and probably doesn't know what to do about a fainting person next to her. At 42, I've stopped giving a damn what people on TV might see, but at ~25 (ish?), I can certainly see myself wondering what is the right thing to do about someone next to me about to fall out behind the President of the United States in front of dozens of cameras with national (even world-wide) news feeds. Do I steady her? Do I try to hold her up to look OK for the cameras until this is over? Do I let her go down? Do I try to usher her out of there, knowing that will cause a scene, too?

---

I remember Camp Boxwell when I was ... maybe 12, maybe a little older. July, and hotter than an iron skillet in Hell. We had "formation" every afternoon before supper, right when it was just especially hot, about 4:30 in the afternoon (breakfast was over at 0600, so we all got up WAY early, and individual troops had their own get-togethers after supper but before sunset around 7:30 or 8:00). There was a flag-lowering ceremony every afternoon before supper, and that was the reason for the assembly, along with any announcements, etc. The "color guard" was given a certain degree of latitude in what they did to ceremoniously bring down the flag each afternoon, and that summer, there were a couple of Black guys who had drawn color-guard duty. It was the '80s, so break-dancing was big, and every day these guys did a few pretty kick-ass moves bringing down the flag. Reasonably respectful, but also interesting enough to draw a little applause at the end. And they sometimes had one or two other Scouts do "audience participation." In retrospect, these guys were really good choreographers, but of course that didn't occur to any of us at that age.

Anyway, blazing hot afternoon. I've been hot all day, and I'm starving. So the colors are coming down and the guys are their break-dancing routine bringing down the flag, and I start to go. I knew it, I realized I had locked my knees, but by the time I realized it, it was too late. I took a half-step forward to try to stabilize myself, and then another, and then another, and then another, and with each successive half-step, my legs were getting more rubbery, and my torso was sinking, sinking, sinking.

Unfortunately for me, everyone watching me thought that I was part of the show, and doing some fancy new break-dancing/Michael Jackson-esque move of trying to look like I was walking down a flight of stairs. No one really caught on until I finally just keeled over and face-planted on the grass.

A couple of people did congratulate me later on my killer moves doing that "stairstep thing."

[Gingersnap]

I remember Camp Boxwell when I was ... maybe 12, maybe a little older. July, and hotter than an iron skillet in Hell. We had "formation" every afternoon before supper, right when it was just especially hot, about 4:30 in the afternoon (breakfast was over at 0600, so we all got up WAY early, and individual troops had their own get-togethers after supper but before sunset around 7:30 or 8:00). There was a flag-lowering ceremony every afternoon before supper, and that was the reason for the assembly, along with any announcements, etc. The "color guard" was given a certain degree of latitude in what they did to ceremoniously bring down the flag each afternoon, and that summer, there were a couple of Black guys who had drawn color-guard duty. It was the '80s, so break-dancing was big, and every day these guys did a few pretty kick-ass moves bringing down the flag. Reasonably respectful, but also interesting enough to draw a little applause at the end. And they sometimes had one or two other Scouts do "audience participation." In retrospect, these guys were really good choreographers, but of course that didn't occur to any of us at that age.

Anyway, blazing hot afternoon. I've been hot all day, and I'm starving. So the colors are coming down and the guys are their break-dancing routine bringing down the flag, and I start to go. I knew it, I realized I had locked my knees, but by the time I realized it, it was too late. I took a half-step forward to try to stabilize myself, and then another, and then another, and then another, and with each successive half-step, my legs were getting more rubbery, and my torso was sinking, sinking, sinking.

Unfortunately for me, everyone watching me thought that I was part of the show, and doing some fancy new break-dancing/Michael Jackson-esque move of trying to look like I was walking down a flight of stairs. No one really caught on until I finally just keeled over and face-planted on the grass.

A couple of people did congratulate me later on my killer moves doing that "stairstep thing."

LOL! Yes, the things we do look "normal" are usually the very things to make us look like idiots.

[scott]

Well, it's odd that the friend doesn't look at the woman - I sure would if I thought my friend was getting faint or sick. On the other hand, they are fairly random people standing right behind the President and they are aware that they are facing not only a crowd but cameras.

I have literally stepped over friends in marching band during competitions and performances (not during practices). It's a funny dynamic that happens when people are up in front of a crowd. The show must go on and all that. The embarrassment of excusing yourself and leaving seems worse than just toughing it out (and potentially fainting or blowing chunks).

It's irrational but there you are.

I can understand that, but why did the lady on the left let go of the fainting faker just before her performance?

[scott]

I disagree. I really can't believe they would stoop to county fair theatrics.

But he did in 2008 with the "can we get somebody?" fainting spells.

Why does he need to direct the paramedics? They are fully capable of getting through a crowd themselves and the rest of the crowd doesn't need to be told to move.

[Adam]

Perhaps if the pregnant prop actually had Obamacare, she wouldn't have been so weak and wouldn't have fainted.

Only three of those people behind Obama actually have Obamacare.

[Billy Jingo]

Fainting truthers?

That's funny.

BTW scott, you seriously didn't have some guy in formation pass out? It happened more than once in my experience.

[Bob Loblaw 3.0]

Everything else aside... I think we can all agree that her hairdo was horrible. That much we do know.

[Gingersnap]

Everything else aside... I think we can all agree that her hairdo was horrible. That much we do know.

Well, yes. I thought that went without saying.

[Michele]

From what I see in the video, in the very beginning it looks like she is struggling to pull it together. If you've ever fainted, you can see the signs.

That some people think it could have been staged is not surprising considering who would have done it.