Clinton: "Yes, I will support a re-affirmation of the Doha Declaration!"

First-hand account of what went down in Nashua at the Clinton event: She gave a quick stump speech and then went straight into a Q/A session in a gym of about 2,000 people. I got the first question, and by enormous luck, CNN cut in live just as I started the question, and our colleague T. Richard happened to be watching at that moment to catch it. I asked the question partially noted below thanking her for her global AIDS commitments but requesting immediate action by co-sponsoring the resolution which would re-affirm Doha. Her lengthy and positive response is also in the transcript below. (thanks Rob and Sarah for getting that and sending it out!) It is key to note that after she said, "I will support a re-affirmation of the Doha Declaration" I asked her again, "So you will sign-on as a co-sponsor to the resolution?" and that is when she said "Yes. I will." as recorded in the transcript. She was very clearly responding specifically to the question of co-sponsorship. In the handshake line afterward, I thanked her for agreeing to co-sponsor the resolution and told her we will look forward to seeing her name on it very soon. I answered a question of hers about who else is signed on right now (Brown, Kennedy, Dodd, Durbin, and Webb), and I told her which staffer in her DC office has all the info on the resolution. I then talked to the Concord Monitor for a little bit about how excited I was that the Senator just agreed to co-sponsor S.Res.241 and it is a step Obama and McCain should take too if they want to show their leadership on global health issues. Haven't seen if that actually made it in the paper or not... This affirmative response from her, combined with the great work of Trish and the St. Mike's crew with Bill Clinton on the same issue on Sat., will hopefully be enough to shake loose a co-sponsorship from her office in the next week or so. Then we'll have to continue hammering away at Obama and McCain to get them to do the same on this important resolution! ALSO at the Clinton event, ACTUP/NY members John Riley and Eric Sawyer were each able to get a question on health care (which proved to be the main topic of the event). Eric noted how many dollars get wasted by the for-profit private health insurance industry within a story about his dad's challenges to get good health care, and asked Hillary if she would consider supporting a single-payer system like she initially did in the early 90's that would eliminate these problems from private health insurance. She responded that she is not for a single-payer system right now and she wants people who are happy with their insurance plans to be able to stay with them. She continued then to agree with the problems of private health insurance and talked about more regulation and how her plan will contain a large public program that people can join. John followed up a little later with another private health insurance story about a PWA being denied medications and asking how her plan would control drug prices AND if congress passed legislation to create a national single-payer system would she, as president, sign it. She said that she would sign such legislation if congress passed it, but she is pushing her plan right now. Her plan does contain regulations on Pharma and their pricing by allowing negotiation for government spending. These are good responses to work with in the effort toward achieving real, affordable guaranteed health care for everyone. GREAT WORK this weekend everyone! The candidates definitely felt the heat and will certainly have our issues on their minds as the campaign season continues.

Contributed by Aaron Boyle