August 2, 2019

Look out. It's a trap.


If the idea is what a crazy flouting of any respect for the truth, be careful. Just last month, Joe Biden declared: "I promise you if I'm elected president, you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America, we're gonna cure cancer."

But if you want to take down Biden, go right ahead and savage Trump for promising to cure cancer.

Realistically, it probably doesn't hurt Trump or Biden to overstate their impending triumph over cancer. It's hyperbole, but it's dedication to the fight against cancer.

75 comments:

daskol said...

Rhetorical devices for me but not for thee.

Mike Sylwester said...

That's our President Trump!

Gahrie said...

If cancer were cured under Trump, the Democrats would complain about all the doctors and researchers who were out of a job.

Bay Area Guy said...

Who is "Aaron Rupar" and why should anyone care what he thinks about Trump or anything else?

The dynamic I see is an unending parade of Lilliputian nobodies trying to take down our man, Trump - and failing miserably.

chuck said...

Nixon started it and the program has made progress over the years. Why doesn't anybody mention Nixon?

rehajm said...

To be fair some cancer therapies turn once fatal cancers into treatable chronic conditions and researchers are very excited about tuning the immune system to attack cancer cells. I've heard doctor's cautiously talk about the cure word.

Wince said...

As a lawyer, I'm surprised Althouse didn't the difference between the two.

Biden introduced his election as president as a condition precedent for the curing of cancer.

Trump simply said the "things we're doing in our country today" will lead to a cure for cancer.

Howard said...

Cancer is starting to be cured and those fucked up millennials are doing it at Harvard, Stanford and other Elite bastions of evil liberal thoughts.

Of course pols want to take credit for what is already happening.

gilbar said...

"people say i'm a really good fisher"
"we're going to Cure Cancer"

don't y'all see that EACH of these statements are LITERALLY TRUE?

more than one person has said that i'm a really good fisher (all ignorant people, but...)
more than one person's Cancer, HAS BEEN CURED

What's That?
MOST PEOPLE think i SUCK at fly fishing? Doesn't change the validity of my statements, does it?

alan markus said...

In the Trump clip, he never says "I'. It is all about what "we" will do.

In the Biden clip, he says "we" once, otherwise it is all "I".

rehajm said...

Biden introduced his election as president as a condition precedent for the curing of cancer.

Heh. Yes he did.

Sebastian said...

"Trump simply said the "things we're doing in our country today" will lead to a cure for cancer."

Curing "childhood cancer" "very shortly."

Jeff Brokaw said...

Nothing wrong with being ambitious and setting stretch goals. That’s how you accomplish big things.

How is this any different from JFK’s widely admired public declaration to put a man on the moon by 1970?

People who sit on the sidelines and criticize those who set big goals are ankle-biters. Annoying as hell.

Ambrose said...

What will happen first - cure of cancer or elimination of the use hydrocarbons for fuel?

rehajm said...

What a selfish ass. That's right up there with If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog

Lucid-Ideas said...

Trump promised to annex Canada (aka America's Hat) and make them the 51st state. He said and I quote, "Surrender pronto or we'll level Toronto."

True story.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I thought Biden already made the promise first? How dare Trump say such a thing. Impeach!

jaydub said...

"Biden introduced his election as president as a condition precedent for the curing of cancer."

It's not worth it Joe.

Ralph L said...

If they do cure cancer, SS and Medicare, and thus the Fed Government, will go bust even faster. There won't be enough young people to wipe butts in the nursing homes.

Phil 314 said...

Shouldn’t this have a Glenn Reynolds “Faster please” tag.

Mr. Groovington said...

Lucid-Ideas said...
Trump promised to annex Canada (aka America's Hat) and make them the 51st state. He said and I quote, "Surrender pronto or we'll level Toronto."

As a Canadian, I wish this would happen.

Jersey Fled said...

Obama promised to keep the seas from rising. He did it too, as sea level hasn't risen nearly as much as "science" was predicting back then.

Fernandinande said...

Trump just promised to cure cancer. Yes, really.

False. Yes, really.

Here's the video of @JoeBiden promising to cure cancer if elected president.

False.

Trump and Biden (boy, he's a boring talker) said "we", not the "I" strongly implied by their misleadingly worded statements.

Michael McNeil said...

sea level hasn't risen nearly as much as "science" was predicting back then.

“Global warming” science has been predicting for many years now — and continues to predict — that sea levels will rise by some 1 meter (3 ft.) by the end of this century — which is still basically the entire lifetime of a baby born today distant from us. Given that (and especially because most of that forecast rise is expected to occur towards the end of that period), how much would one think sea levels would have risen by now? Contrary to public myth, not much!

tommyesq said...

Would need the context leading up to the statement - was he stating that this would happen if he was re-elected, or that this was the trajectory that cancer (and AIDS) research was taking and would happen holistically (pun intended) without input from him?

Biden tied the promise to himself - "I promise you if I am elected" - in other words, cancer will not be cured unless Biden is elected. Trump, on the other hand, talks about the amazing things we are doing today - i.e., already doing - and does not (at least in the excerpted bit) tie it to him being President.

CJinPA said...

John Edwards told folks when running for VP with Kerry that they were going make Christopher Reeves walk again. They lost, so we'll never know.

narciso said...

Well they loosened the restrictions on embryonic stem cells didnt they wasnt that what stem cell Express was about?

Francisco D said...

Of course pols want to take credit for what is already happening.

That is true, Howard.

Politicians have nothing to do with curing cancer. However, their policies can make it much more difficult, such as socializing medicine (and everything else).

stevew said...

Curing cancer - a unitary accomplishment over tens and hundreds of forms of the disease - will be the culmination of many years of effort by lots and lots of people. Pretty silly to predict that it will happen as the result of the election of a particular President. Maybe that is what Trump is saying/trolling?

Darkisland said...

Actually, PDJT (not Obama, not Biden) did cure HIV.

But nobody hears about this story:


Gilead donates anti-HIV drug for 200,000 people to help Trump initiative

by Kimberly Leonard

May 09, 2019 07:15 PM

Pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences will donate the anti-HIV drug Truvada to the federal government so it can move toward its goal to eliminate HIV transmission in a decade.

"My administration just secured a historic donation of HIV prevention drugs from Gilead to help expand access... for the uninsured and those at risk," President Trump tweeted Thursday.

Great news today: My Administration just secured a historic donation of HIV prevention drugs from Gilead to help expand access to PrEP for the uninsured and those at risk. Will help us achieve our goal of ending the HIV epidemic in America!


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/gilead-donates-anti-hiv-drug-for-200-000-people-to-help-trump-initiative

Scott Adams talked about it on his podcast back in May and said that PDJT had eliminated HIV. He also said that he thought he might be using hyperbole. But maybe not.

Since PDJT is loudly proclaimed to be anti-gay, this does not fit the narrative.

John Henry

Darkisland said...


Scott Adams talked about it on his podcast back in May and said that PDJT had eliminated HIV. He [Adams] also said that he thought he [Adams] might be using hyperbole. But maybe not.

Sorry, that originally read like PDJT was saying he had cured HIV.

All PDJT was saying was that it was progress toward a 10 year goal.

John Henry

Ice Nine said...

Just like Biden said - except it would probably be prudent to take Donald Trump seriously when he says it.

sinz52 said...

There have been several "wars on cancer" already.

After Jonas Salk pioneered the polio vaccine, attention in the 1950s turned to fighting cancer. Salk himself too.

In 1971, President Nixon launched a "war on cancer."

It's all nonsense.

Any oncologist will tell you that there is no one single disease called "cancer." It's just a colloquial term for a zillion different diseases. A "war on cancer" is like declaring a "war on germs."

If we could figure out how to cure lymphoma, for example, it wouldn't do anything to help cure melanoma or brain tumors. They're totally different.

Seeing Red said...

They’re getting closer on some lung cancers.

I read an article about the NHS. An interviewee stated one reason they don’t have enuf money is because so many people are living with cancer now.

Ann Althouse said...

"Who is "Aaron Rupar" and why should anyone care what he thinks about Trump or anything else?"

Someone I follow retweeted this. He's at Think Progress and has a lot more Twitter followers than I do. Not that I respect the Twitter hierarchy. I don't fight in that contest. I have my cocoon here and it's much nicer.

Biff said...

Trump didn't say we are going to "cure cancer." He said we are going to be "curing childhood cancer."

While I don't agree with Trump's hyperbole in this case, the progress against childhood cancers has been nothing short of stunning, and it far outpaces progress against adult forms of cancer. For example, it wasn't that long ago that a diagnosis of childhood leukemia was a death sentence; we now talk about 90% survival rates for the most common forms.

I quite frankly despise when any politician (including Trump) promises cures for any kind of medical condition. It only demonstrates their ignorance of medicine or their cynicism about politics. That said, Trump's statement is far more justifiable than Biden's remark. I give Trump one Pinocchio, while I give Biden at least three.

AllenS said...

The big question is this: which one of them do you believe?

Anyone else been wondering why Obama hasn't said one word about Biden?

Seeing Red said...

I thought people liked the collective “we?”

narciso said...

Remember him as tractor man, from a few weeks back.

rcocean said...

I'm shocked, simply shocked that Trump would exaggerate his accomplishments. Lol. Besides, we all know that if Adam whatever-his-name-is wasn't attacking Trump over "Curing Cancer" he'd be attacking Trump over something else. CNN is STILL attacking Trump every day over Trump-Russia.

robother said...

Curing Cancer, Receding the oceans. The American Presidency, is there anything it can't do?

rcocean said...

The liberal MSM have been crying wolf about Trump every single fucking day for the last 4 years. Yes, 4 years! He came down the escalator in Aug 2015. Incredible, it seems like a million years ago.

rcocean said...

And as someone pointed out Trump didn't really say he'd cure ALL cancer. But again, this is the same rhetorical trick the Left-wing MSM has been using for 4 years. They don't accurately quote Trump, they summarize or label what he says. Or they wrench it out of context and strip out any qualifiers. Then attack Trump for saying something he didn't say. What's insane is they could just QUOTE THE TWEET. But they refuse to do that.

rcocean said...

You'd think people would've wised up by now. What the MSM says Trump said, may or may not be the truth, or accurate. But some are still jumping to conclusions based on what the Press says. I noticed after 4 years, even Rod Dreher has gone from accepting the MSM Story about Trump 100% of the time, to 80%. Which is amazingly skeptical for Rod Dreher.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

MSM does lie about Trump's words and context.

for instance - Trump never said to Omar "get out" or "go back"
he said - and not even to her specifically - that anyone who hates it here should go back to the 3rd world hell hole they escaped, fix it, and come back and tell us how it is done.

The MSM lies.

Dave Begley said...

My report on Biden in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

"If elected, Joe will resume his “moonshot” and cure cancer. He wants to take credit for the work of researchers and doctors who have made significant progress over many years. But in the same speech he promised to “throw the book” at Big Pharma and, with his new healthcare plan, there will be a cap of 8.5% of income on a person’s healthcare expenses. Without the capital to do the research, how is that going to work out?

The former Vice President complained that “billions” of opioid pills had flooded the country and many people have died of addiction. I was in Oklahoma City this week and the State of Oklahoma just finished its personal injury case against some drug manufacturers. One of the witnesses was the father of Oklahoma Sooner football player Austin Box who died before his senior year due to an opioid overdose. The thing of it is that the country was flooded with those billions of pills during the Obama-Biden Administration. Was Joe asleep at the switch when this happened?"

Come on, man. What about those pills Joe?

Martin said...

I'm old enough to remember when Nixon launched his War on Cancer, promising a cure in, iirc, 10 years.

It was a joke then and it's a joke now. Just curing one kind of common cancer would be great. Eliminating all forms of cancer is a pipe dream for the foreseeable future.

cubanbob said...

Forget curing cancer, lets cure stupidity first. Joe can be a test subject. If the cure works on him, it will work on just about anyone. Just think, once stupidity is cured then most of life's problems are either eliminated or largely ameliorated thus freeing up the really smart people's time so they can devote themselves to curing cancer and every other disease.

DavidUW said...

There are several cancers (mostly blood cancers) that can be effectively cured. Several more if caught early (breast, colon, prostate, melanoma).

But there are as many cancers as there are cell types and many remain difficult or impossible to treat effectively.

Francisco D said...

Forget curing cancer, lets cure stupidity first.

Why give up on the very difficult in order to pursue the impossible?

Art said...

We have cures for most cancers identified early enough. Prevention is the next horizon and we are making great strides with some cancers.

Michael K said...

The former Vice President complained that “billions” of opioid pills had flooded the country and many people have died of addiction.

One in the Kennedy compound last weekend At least she didn't suffocate in Teddy's car.

Michael K said...

There are several cancers (mostly blood cancers) that can be effectively cured.

I was a medical student when the first 5 year cures of childhoods leukemia came in to the clinic. It was just amazing.

Ten years later, I was a resident at Childrens' when the first girls who had been cured of leukemia had babies. That was another milestone. The babies were fine and there had been a lot of fear about birth defects.

gerry said...

Cancer is starting to be cured and those fucked up millennials are doing it at Harvard, Stanford and other Elite bastions of evil liberal thoughts.

The STEM divisions of universities are not yet completely infected with the maladies of liberalism that impair the humanities. It is changing, however, so medical advances will soon be regressive since they will be required to conform to political demands. It will be similar happened to Soviet Union wheat crops as a result of Lysenkosism.

gerry said...

Lysenkoism. Sorry about the typo.

tcrosse said...

My personal hope is for a cure for Alzheimer's, but the scientists seem to have given up.

mikee said...

The question you gotta ask is, "Who do you think could do more as President for cancer curing research - Biden or Trump?"

And if you answered Biden, I've got a few shares of Solyndra sitting around somewhere that you can buy from me.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

it would have been even better if he said Mexico will pay for it

alan markus said...

As a "boomer", I feel our payback for past sins will be to become aware of a lot cures for diseases on the horizon, but too late to save our sorry asses from those diseases. But we will leave with a renewed hope for the generations we leave behind.

Ken B said...

You are hallucinating. Just like Scott Adams predicted. Trump did not claim that a cure for cancer was contingent on his re election. His talked about progress being made in America.

TreeJoe said...

Tcrosse said, "My personal hope is for a cure for Alzheimer's, but the scientists seem to have given up."

As someone who works in biopharma research, this could not be less true.

It is accurate that scientists have probably now "wasted" $25-50 billion on failed Alzheimer's treatment research with no clear direction in sight as to what WOULD be the correct path for successful treatment.

But they haven't given up. They are re-calibrating an attack strategy and re-examining the research - including the failures - to see what to approach next.

In some ways, it's been fascinating to watch one of the true "moon shots" of our generation get so little relative attention. Alzheimer's is in some ways more mysterious than Autism when it comes to what causes it and how to treat it.

narciso said...

Eric holder as a retainer to Purdue lied between his teeth to the west Virginia supreme court, of course he was enabled by Alice Fisher at main justice (where have we heard that name before)

Kevin said...

Somebody turned Admrial Ackbar into a song.

Michael K said...

Alzheimer's is in some ways more mysterious than Autism when it comes to what causes it and how to treat it.

Autism may well be genetic and related to receptors for peptides like oxytocin. Asbergers may be similar.

Alzheimers may be infectious.

joker said...

It was a joke! Disappointed that you could not see that.

joker said...

btw. This is not new.

https://time.com/4178412/cancer-state-of-the-union-barack-obama-sotu/

I mean really. This is so totally absurd. I mean, who could possibly not want to cure cancer! Even the Squad would be on board with this. Even Mitch McConnell. There are words and there are actions. Trump knows the difference. I wonder if Obama and Biden knew? Or did they.

Fernandinande said...

I was in Oklahoma City this week and the State of Oklahoma just finished its personal injury case against some drug manufacturers.

"The state is asking [some government lawyer] to deliver a nearly $17.2 billion verdict to create an abatement plan that would fund government programs over 30 years to help bring an end to the state's opioid epidemic."

I sure hope OK loses bigly. What a scam and potential waste of money.

Fernandinande said...

My personal hope is for a cure for Alzheimer's, but the scientists seem to have given up.

They forgot about it.

joker said...

https://time.com/4178412/cancer-state-of-the-union-barack-obama-sotu/

Read that again. Obama was promoting Biden in the SOTU. What changed?

robother said...

Didn't I just read that cherry juice is the cure for Alzheimers? (A discovery since Trump's election as President--thank you Vladimir!)

RobinGoodfellow said...


Blogger Lucid-Ideas said...
Trump promised to annex Canada (aka America's Hat) and make them the 51st state. He said and I quote, "Surrender pronto or we'll level Toronto."


That’s even better than "54 40 or Fight!"

Dave Begley said...

I suspect TreeJoe is correct. And all those billions spent on failed drugs and research is why drugs that work are expensive. The drug companies have to recover their losses on things that don't work out. Someone tell Bernie this.

Bilwick said...

I'd be happy if one of these guys cured statism. (The Democide statistics probably show it has killed more people than cancer.) Hint, hint: the cure is a little something called "liberty." The Democratic presidential hopefuls should look it up.

stlcdr said...

Blogger tommyesq said...
Would need the context leading up to the statement - was he stating that this would happen if he was re-elected, or that this was the trajectory that cancer (and AIDS) research was taking and would happen holistically (pun intended) without input from him?

Biden tied the promise to himself - "I promise you if I am elected" - in other words, cancer will not be cured unless Biden is elected. Trump, on the other hand, talks about the amazing things we are doing today - i.e., already doing - and does not (at least in the excerpted bit) tie it to him being President.

8/2/19, 8:44 AM


I was trying to find words to describe the difference between Biden and Trump in this context, and this is basically it.

Trump: America is great, look what we - you, the people - are trying to do.
Biden: you can only do great things when I’m in charge.

Skipper said...

If curing cancer is just a matter of political will, where was Biden for his whole political life?