My husband poked me and gave me a significant look when the word "autism" popped up in Bill Clinton's speech last night. Here's what Mr. Clinton had to say:

I will never forget the parents of children with autism and other severe conditions who told me on the campaign trail that they couldn’t afford health care and couldn’t qualify their kids for Medicaid unless they quit work or got a divorce. Are these the family values the Republicans are so proud of?

This was the second time autism had come up at the convention. Hillary had brought up the subject only the night before:

I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism, didn’t have health insurance and discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head painted with my name on it and asked me to fight for health care.

In both of these cases, the Clintons mentioned autism as if it were an illness that could be treated and cured through medical means - and that the medical tools needed to cure autism would be covered under publically available medical insurance. The idea was "if only these folks had a decent HMO, everything would be just fine."

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