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October 6, 2004
LA TIMES STORY ON THE CHENEY-EDWARDS FAILURE
Question on AIDS Goes Unanswered
By Maria L. La Ganga
Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2004
A new issue crept into the campaign Tuesday night - what to do about AIDS
in America - and neither of the well-prepped candidates in the vice presidential
debate had much to say.
Apparently citing federal figures, the moderator said that in the U.S., "black
women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the
disease than their [white] counterparts. What should the government's role
be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?"
Don't talk about the global problem, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John
Edwards were warned; talk about black women and AIDS here at home.
Cheney called the epidemic in America and abroad "a great tragedy"
and talked about how the administration pushed $15 billion through Congress
to attack the problem worldwide.
"I had not heard those numbers with respect to African American women,"
Cheney said. "I was not aware that it was that severe an epidemic there,
because we have made progress in terms of the overall rate."
Edwards didn't do any better. Africa was the first country out of his mouth,
Russia the second. Africa came up again three times, as did genocide in Sudan,
before he mentioned the U.S. And the black women? He never got to them at
all.