Hi all. This is my first diary, however, I have been lurking around the site with great interest, almost daily (no pun intended), since early 2003. I recently came across a piece of news that really made me uncomfortable with the current state of our electoral process. Apparently, all but six of the presidential candidates will skip the debate forums on cancer hosted by Lance Armstrong.
My cable is not working today, so I wanted to put this diary out there as a forum for anyone who saw Lance speak about his forums on today’s Meet The Press. I used to work in a lab doing cancer related research, so while by no means an expert (I’m going back to school for my PhD this fall), it is a topic about which I feel quite strongly. I consider cancer to be a VERY serious issue in our country: in 2005 roughly 570,000 people died from cancer, which translates to about 1,500 every day. That is a 9/11 every two days! To put it another way, in 2005 our nation suffered a loss of life equivalent to roughly 150 Iraq wars. In one year. I don’t have the figures on hand, but I would be willing to bet that we spend the same amount of money in one month fighting in Iraq as we budget for an entire year of fighting cancer.
I am not trying to diminish the significance of either 9/11 or the Iraq war, but rather to put the immense impact cancer on this nation into perspective, into terms with which we are familiar and which drive a significant portion of our national debate. Which brings me back to the original article I cited above. Only 4 democratic (Clinton, Edwards, Richardson and Kucinich) and 2 republican (Huckabee and Brownback) presidential candidates will be participating in Lance Armstrong’s cancer forums this Monday and Tuesday. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if any candidate skipped a debate on Iraq, or the (misnamed) War On Terror? It is quite notable that both McCain and Guiliani—both cancer survivors—will not be in attendance. Another conspicuous absence is Obama. Obama’s national campaign manager articulated his decision to skip many debate forums this autumn, saying:
"our schedule would be dictated by dozens and dozens of forums and debates, and we think the most important part of this process is individual interaction with voters," Plouffe said. "We benefit greatly when we're out there meeting with voters at our own events."
I will try to refrain from cynicism here with respect to Obama’s decision, but to me "individual interaction with voters...at our own events" sounds like they want to use the time to hold fundraisers. And this is understandable, however, in my opinion very lamentable. Same goes for all the other candidates who will not be participating in this event.
I feel that "specific topic" debates, such as this one—and those held by a number of other groups—are important because they offer us a chance to hear about the candidates’ plans regarding a number of issues that might not make it into the debates sponsored by larger organizations/corporatons. And while it may be important for candidates to meet people at their events, I feel very strongly that it is also critically important for the rest of America (those not at the candidate events) to hear about their plans vis-a-vis these other issues--ones which may not be touched upon during campaign stump speaches. So, in the end, I am unsettled by the voracious need that candidates have for fundraising in our current political system, and feel that it detracts from events that may reach a larger number of Americans and give voice to a diverse set of issues. I would like this to be a forum for discussion cancer in general and the merits of how we allocate our research money, our tax money (war vs. research) and how we can work to ameliorate the corrosive effect that fundraising necessities impose upon the candidates. Also, kudos to Lance Armstrong for his wonderful organization, and for trying to enter the debate in our country about how to fight the war on cancer, which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest challenges of this century.
UPDATE: In the comments, it has been brought to my attention that in another news story on this event, Obama's spokesperson said he going to be "with his family that day," and could not attend. So Obama's absence appears not to be related to fundraising. Sorry for the confusion on this point. I still bet that no candidate would be "with their families" during an Iraq debate.