VPs kaffeeklatsch #4

I think Edwards missed a couple of opportunities tonight.

The first came on AIDS. He did not challenge the administration’s insistence on abstinence as the primary tool in the fight against AIDS, the muzzling of doctors who promote condom use, and backwards policies on clean needles and sex education which are direct contributions from right-wing Christian Conservatives. This kind of self-righteous moral evangelism from our Federal Government has no place in public health policy, especially when the stakes are so high, as they are with AIDS.

And second, on the “flip-flop” question, I was surprised and dismayed that Edwards did not clarify the Kerry vote on the $87 billion after Cheney said this:

> ...I think if you look at the record from voting for
> sending the troops then voting against the resources
> they needed when they got there, then saying I actually
> voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it,
> saying in response to a question knowing everything I
> know now, yes, I would have cast exactly the same vote
> and then shortly after that saying wrong war, wrong
> place, wrong time, consistency doesn't come to mind as
> I consider that record.

Cheney’s remarks then drifted into No Child Left Behind and Edwards left the “would have cast the same vote” distortion unchallenged.

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