...no responsible critic of Mrs. Schiavo's dehydration rested his case on an allegation of abuse. (NR explicitly urged opponents of the dehydration not to make such reckless allegations.) While many people held out the hope that treatment might improve Schiavo's condition, very few people thought it at all likely that she would recover to the point, for example, of being able to hold a conversation.

--editorial at National Review Online

Oops! There goes Jeb on point #1, and Peggy Noonan on point #2 ("She looks like one of those coma cases that wind up in the news because the patient, for no clear reason, snaps to and returns to life and says, 'Is it 1983? Is there still McDonald's? Can I have a burger?'").

And on both points, there goes Sean Hannity's pal Carla Sauer Iyer, who was one of Terri Schiavo's nurses for a while in the '90s -- in her much-touted affidavit she accused Michael Schiavo of trying to kill Terri with insulin, and she wrote this:

Terri spoke on a regular basis while in my presence, saying such things as "mommy,' and "help me." "Help me" was, in fact, one of her most frequent utterances.  I heard her say it hundreds of times.   Terri would try to say the word "pain" when she was in discomfort, but it came out more like "pay."  She didn't say the "n" sound very well.  During her menses she would indicate her discomfort by saying "pay" and moving her arms toward her lower abdominal area.... 

When I came into her room and said "Hi, Terri", she would always recognize my voice and her name, and would turn her head all the way toward me, saying "Haaaiiiii" sort of, as she did.  I recognized this as a "hi", which is very close to what it sounded like, the whole sound being only a second or two long.

And also on point #2, there goes this guy:

Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Nobel Prize nominee for his work in helping people with severe brain injuries. He says about 40 percent of his patients are worse off than Terri, yet they have seen remarkable progress. He believes Terri could also do just as well.

Hammesfahr said, "She'll definitely be able to communicate, she'll probably be able to communicate verbally over the course of about two years of treatment, with medication and then, as far as being able to use her arms and legs, she'll be able to use those. This woman is not in a coma, she's not in [a permanent vegetative state] , she's not that bad."

*****

UPDATE: As Aaron notes in the comments, Hammesfahr was never "a Nobel Prize nominee" -- a Republican congressman from Florida wrote a letter to the Nobel committee recommending him for a prize, but only certain people are eligible to make formal Nobel nominations, and the congressman ain't one of 'em. Media Matters has the details.