[wagglebee]

Mr. Obama pledged in the speech to initiate a government wide push to cure the disease along the lines of the effort in the 1960s to send a man to the moon. The president made no specific promises but urged Americans to believe that a cure could be found.

What exactly does he think cancer researchers have been doing for decades now?

[Tax-chick]

What exactly does he think cancer researchers have been doing for decades now?

Playing pinochle.

And what will happen if I don't believe "a cure can be found"? Who will it hurt?

[fuzzylogic]

I’m mixed on this. I don’t trust big-pharma. I trust sincere efforts of scientists, big difference in interests. Cancer treatments make billions. I might be too cynical...hard to know.

If federal money can go to scientists in organizations that are doing honest work it could help. However the cynical in me says it won’t and this is all trying to create a great backdrop for a failed president.

[hinckley buzzard]

The time tested ritual of throwing money at a problem until the public stops noticing, at which point the money throwers find a new target. Sort of like environmental "crises."

Meanwhile cancer will not be "cured," and treatment in the established paradigms will show only incremental progress. Nixon tried this in 1971 and with isolated exceptions the cure rate hardly budged.