The California Debate friendly discussion

I just finished watching the Democratic Debate on CNN. It was surprisingly cordial. A sharp contrast to the Republican debate last night which was snippy, to say the least. Overall, I thought Obama made some key observations at a couple of important moments. I loved when he responded to a viewer question on immigrants being a threat to African-American employment opportunities with a sharp, "I don't think immigration is the chief cause of unemployment in any community in America today." He also mentioned Pakistan as a country that has been largely ignored in the war against terror.

Hillary seemed more PC, less substantive in some of her arguments. She took a beating on her change of stance on the Iraq war since first endorsing it, and now opposing it. Her speech writers are sure doing a good job though. She got a great response to her "It may need a 2nd Clinton to clean up after the 2nd Bush" comment.

All in all, it seemed like less of a debate, more of an amicable discussion. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an agree-fest, but they were so nice to each other, its unbelievable. Especially in the wake of the snarkiness over the last couple of weeks.

At least they both pledged to get out of Iraq quickly. Apart from just being fundamentally opposed to the Iraq war, it also hurts me as a researcher. NIH funding has been stagnant over the last 2-3 years. Owing almost completely to the Iraq war. (NB: The NIH budget is around $ 29 billion. Peanuts compared to what is being spent in Iraq.) Grant funding has become incredibly hard to come by. Less than 10% of grants (I believe the RO1 cut-off was 7% last year. I might as well have tried to get a PG seat in India. Its probably just as hard!) are being funded today. Contrast this with 30% a few years ago, and its hard not to feel aggrieved. I've had at least one rueful professor tell me he'd love to have me in his lab, but doesn't have the resources for it. I'm now witnessing another PI gradually being phased out of the department because his funding is running out. Scary stuff.

All this rambling just means that I like Obama. (In case it wasn't obvious enough.) The real question is: Is America color-blind enough to vote Obama? I guess we'll find out. My sneaking suspicion is probably not. I think Hillary could well give McCain a tougher fight eventually. We shall see.