Thank you for calling for responsibility in our community.  I am a black man, and many of the problems in our community our own fault but we don't wanna take that responsibility.  So many people were PISSED when Bill Cosby got uppity a couple years ago, and that was mainly because he spoke the truth.  Barack spoke the truth to the community at Howard, Hillary Clinton opened her mouth and pandered at every chance.  I hope people don't fall for it.

about your suggestion of what a candidate for President of the United States should say in addressing the topic of HIV-AIDS in a public forum.

Although, I must say, that you have done a pretty good job of summarizing the Bush administration policy...except that they would leave out the condom part, since those are a "no-no", too.

Color me not surprised and absolutely unimpressed that this poster "does not like Clinton," and "has had it with her."

I was surprised that Clinton received the most applause of the evening, given that this was in a way Obama's hometurf.  She won this debate with candor, clarity, knowledge.  

The more people see her in debates, the more they seem to like her.  That is also going to be true in a good portion of the AA community after tonight.

is a good place to start

So all the hard work to help African American community by Clintons' during 90s is are pandering?

Now we have a black candidate Obama, who has been in the senate for only 2 years. And Suddently he's running for president? What are his qualifications? If you are talking about pandering, that's probably another form of pandering by the media to 'manufacture' a 'black star'.

In my opinion, there are many many African Americans who are more qualified than Obama. How about Cohen Powell?

I agree, as a black male I always find it terribly offensive how white politicians butter-up black folks with victimology. Don't get me wrong, some of us buy it hook line and sinker, and that's on us. But that is exactly the sort of message that the most downtrodden among us DO NOT NEED to hear. The truth is, pathologies and cultural taboos within OUR OWN community are to blame for the spread of HIV. Of course wider American society ought to care, but we'd get alot futher on this issues, as black people, if we focused on our own agency to address the problem.

Obama was point own when it discussed the silence from black churches on AIDS and the rampant homophobia in the black community. These are cultural deficits that we need to address--deficits that only black folks can tackle.  

It doesn't help when white politicians (and some in the "black leadership) distract of from this, but it's to be expected I guess. Kudos to Clinton for scoring political points, but it's tragic if black folks take her remarks as a prescription for anything. I don't blame her though, I blame US for falling for it.

And just where were your preferred candidates when it came to addressing this? Certainly not championing your points. If you are insulted it should be with the candidates you support not by someone you don't.

And Obama's quick clarification to Joe Biden's point that people should not be afraid to get aids testing is exactly the point Biden was making. Obama came off embarrassed that he was tested, as if he needed to explain it. All rational adults should get tested. Period.

I'm the person that gave the single vote to "somewhat important" only because the two bottom choices would seem rather callous and the "extremely important" would suggest it's a top priority of mine.   I would be lying if I said it were.  

As an average middle-aged boring white guy I would also be lying if I pretended to know how AIDS is effecting the black community.   Clearly, I will never see the situation from the same perspective as you do.    In the same way that I will never really be able to see and feel how racism impacts the black community.

There should be a fifth option, "HIV/AIDS needs to be stopped dead in its tracks, lets do what we can stop this rotten disease before it hurts anybody else."