Urging a more aggressive national commitment to finding an AIDS cure, she said that if "we don't begin to take it seriously and address it the way we did back in the '90s, when it was primarily a gay men's disease, we will never get the services and the public education that we need."
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered a rare note of praise for President Bush, saying White House spending on global AIDS relief was "relatively impressive."
Turning to Hurricane Katrina, the candidates seemed united in their outrage over New Orleans' slow recovery. The Bush administration "has basically neglected with almost criminal indifference the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, in particular New Orleans and the parishes," Clinton said.
Edwards said that if he was elected, a White House official would report to him daily on the pace of New Orleans' recovery.
The candidates largely agreed that the criminal justice system was overly punitive when it comes to African Americans. Asked about the disproportionate share of blacks who are imprisoned, several candidates called for an end to racial profiling, a rollback of mandatory minimum sentences, and alternatives to incarceration.
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michael.finnegan@latimes.com
peter.nicholas@latimes.com
