Hillary Clinton victory celebration in troubled hotel
Hey, let's have a party where dozens feel deathly ill.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the winner of today's Pennsylvania Democratic primary, is expected to speak to a joyous throng of supporters in a few minutes in an ornate ballroom of the Park Hyatt Hotel in downtown Philadelphia. (You can tell when she thinks she's going to win a state -- she stays in that state for the evening. Otherwise, she's outta there.)
Formerly known as the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, the hostelry was the notorious scene of a mysterious illness in 1976 during an American Legion convention, later dubbed Legionnaires' disease. Thirty-four deaths were eventually traced to the Legionella pneumophila bacteria.
--Andrew Malcolm
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Snide remark, Andrew. You demean yourself by stooping to such sour grapes sarcasm as, "You can tell when she (Hillary) thinks she's going to win a state -- she stays in that state for the evening. Otherwise, she's outta there." Yes, Hillary won, and the pundits (like you guys at the LA Times) lost big time on the bet that she wouldn't-- so don't be such sore losers.
Posted by: Olivia Stinson | April 22, 2008 at 07:15 PM
"She's outta there"? Like Sen. Obama, who left for Indiana earlier today? Could your bias be showing, Mr. Malcolm?
Posted by: Stuart | April 22, 2008 at 07:40 PM
Some frustration displayed here by Mr. Malcolm on Hillary's win. Last I heard was that Obamma is 'outta there' after his loss. And what in the world has to do with the past of a hotel and celebration? Could you enlighten us Mr. Malcolm what kind of moral dilemma you would Hillary Clinton be facing while celebrating her victory in that hotel? Notwithstanding your newspaper's backing of Mr. Obama, your complaints are childish at best. Get a grip!
Posted by: Rodomont Iuga | April 22, 2008 at 07:47 PM
people forget that hillary could not close the deal Feb 2 when she was anointed to win it all.
Posted by: pablo kelly | April 22, 2008 at 08:06 PM
The difference between the coverage of Hillary Clinton's victory in the US LA Times:(her
uphill climb, that she is still losing to Obama by every measure) and the UK( BBC: She has gained a clear
victory that keep her hopes alive) show that the US is a real hold-out of paternalistic sexism. Your hotel rubbish takes today's biscuit, by the way. That Hillary is winning at all with constant negative coverage like this is just amazing. But the high turn out of women in Pennsylvania means women aren't falling for your sexist messages. More power to them.
Posted by: Catherine | April 22, 2008 at 08:33 PM
what does sexism have to do with anyone's personal bias against Hillary?
are you so blind that that's the only difference you see between these candidates?
how about her utter political phoniness?
how about the fact that she voted for the war when barack was presciently warning about the consequences?
how about her dirty campaigning (that makes her look no different from the swift-boat-style politics of the other party)...
please wake up and realize that sex has NOTHING to do with it...
Posted by: ben | April 23, 2008 at 01:07 AM
It's Hillary or the Highway for me as far as the Democratic Party is concerned.
I have been a life long Democrat. The Democratic Party System of caucus and primary and the scheduling of the process, the disenfranchised voters in Florida and Michigan, etc--all of this--major mismanagement of the DNC by Howard Dean, Move on.orgs power over the DNC, etc--it's all a mess!
and because of this mess- Senator Obama- the weakest candidate of all the candidates that ran in the primary has more "pledged delegates". It feels as if the party has been hijacked!
In the general, I have to vote for who I think would be the best President, and Senator Obama is third on that list.
Posted by: Evelyn | April 23, 2008 at 08:12 AM