I Have Found My Candidate

Yesterday was the third GOP presidential debate. For a person in my situation, one candidate stood out from all the rest. Check out this exchange between one of the moderators and Governor Mike Huckabee (emphasis mine):

+ + +

Moderator: Welcome back to Boulder, Colorado and the Republican presidential debate right here on CNBC. Governor Huckabee, you wanted to respond to the points that Senator Rand Paul was just making when it comes to Social Security. Your time, sir.

Governor Huckabee: Well, and specifically to Medicare, Becky, because 85 percent of the cost of Medicare is chronic disease. The fact is if we don't address what's costing so much, we can't throw enough money at this. And it's why I've continued to focus on the fact that we need to declare war on the four big cost drivers because 80 percent of all medical costs in this country are chronic disease. We don't have a health care crisis in America, we have a health crisis.

And until we deal with the health of Americans and do what we did with polio -- when I was a little kid, we eradicated it. You know how much money we spent on polio last year in America? We didn't spend any. We've saved billions of dollars.

You want to fix Medicare? Focus on the diseases that are costing us the trillions of dollars. Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Eradicate those and you fix Medicare and you've fixed America, its economy and you've made people's lives a heck of a lot better.

+ + +

As a patient with two out of those four diseases -- and if I survive the cancer long enough, possibly even all four -- can I just say, "Hallelujah, brother!" This is the kind of leadership we need. The kind of president who will just issue an order like "cure cancer" and it'll get done. Governor Huckabee, you have my vote sir.

What's that you say? Diseases can't be cured by executive fiat? That doesn't seem right. Governor Huckabee seems very confident that we -- or he -- could just decide to cure these diseases and it would happen. Who's already tried it? Richard who? What do you mean President Nixon "declared war on cancer" in 1971? If he did that, how is it possible that I have cancer? Huckabee's statement certainly didn't suggest a 45 year timeline to me. I mean, I wouldn't expect him to instantly cure cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and heart disease. I'd be willing to grant him 90 days or so. But 45 years? That can't be right. I'm betting people just haven't tried.

What do you mean researchers have been trying to cure those diseases for years? Mike's statement made it seem like we haven't even tried. He seemed to imply that we need his direction to find those cures. Wait. Stop. Can you repeat that? I wait to make sure I get this right: Cures are the result of medical research. The primary source of basic medical research in the United States are the National Institutes of Health. Republicans, of which Mike Huckabee is one, continually try to reduce funding to the NIH believing that it's not the job of the government to fund that work. So electing a Republican, even Mike, is far more likely to reduce the chances of curing those diseases than to actually cause them to be cured. Do I have that right?

But if that's true, it almost seems like you're saying Mike was lying. What do you mean all candidates lie? How can candidates lie? We expect and encourage them to lie? Excuse the language, but what sort of fucked up system chooses it's leaders based on which one can lie the best?

Welcome to America? What sort of answer is "Welcome to America"?