Lance Armstrong Veers Left
Lance Armstrong Veers Left
Lance Armstrong’s future as a politician (Texas governor? President?) is the talk of the town, and Armstrong has told Time magazine that he hasn’t ruled out the possibility now that his cycling career is over. Luckily, as this quote from yesterday’s USA Today suggests, Armstrong has his priorities in order:
“Funding [for cancer research] is tough to come by these days,” he says. “The biggest downside to a war in Iraq is what you could do with that money. What does a war in Iraq cost a week? A billion? Maybe a billion a day? The budget for the National Cancer Institute is four billion. That has to change. It needs to become a priority again.
“Polls say people are much more afraid of cancer than of a plane flying into their house or a bomb or any other form of terrorism. It is a priority for the American public.”
(via LeftI)
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Lance Armstrong left his wife, of course he’s a lefty.
July 26th, 2005 at 12:31 pmYou go lANCE! HE ALSO RIDES Mt Bikes with bush who can’t set a bike. I hope he yanks bush’s ears off the next time they ride. No More Wars but what a relief if we put war dollars into Research for Healthy Americans and The World.
Terrorism is spured on by Proverty Mr bush! People who have been beat down for years and years will fight back when they are conered just like an Abused dog will.
Its time that America got on the side of people not Big Money and Big Greed .This adminstration is a Super Size Me Greed
July 26th, 2005 at 12:32 pmThere is far more divorce and broken marriages, incest too, in red states. Nice try, crapple.
July 26th, 2005 at 12:42 pmGo Lance!!
July 26th, 2005 at 12:54 pmDon’t need any more hero politicians. Need to stop projecting what is good in all of us on to someone “above”. Someone who will quickly lose touch with those he/she represents and be absorbed by the elite.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:08 pmWant a real person, who shares the same problems and cares of the masses.
#1 – thank you. Lance, while an inspiration on the cancer front, leaves alot more to be desired in other areas. The morons that have martyrized this man should think twice about what type of candidate he would make.
Of course Kerry is going to push Armstrong. He invented infidelity.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:09 pmThank you Knee-Jerk Dilemma. Who would guess you’re quick to criticize anything Democrat? No reasons necessary.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:12 pmI thought he was a lefty cause he lost his right ball.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:19 pmAs a long-time fan of Lance Armstrong as well as a cancer survivor, I really really wish we could leave politics out of some things. This has nothing to do with the sentiments involved (I happen to agree with his statement), I just would rather not have one side of the other staking a claim to this man as being on “their side”, the same way I wished everyone would pipe down after Curt Schilling endorsed Bush right after the Sox won the Series. Can’t a great and happy achievement stand on its own? At least for a while? This all just sucks the wonder and joy out of these achievements and there are too few of these around lately.
My 2 cents..
July 26th, 2005 at 1:24 pmThe biggest downside to a war in Iraq is what you could do with that money.
So he doesn’t consider 100,000 dead Iraqis to be that big a deal? Doesn’t sound like a lefty to me. (And, Neddy, I thought it was Clinton who invented infidelity. Try to keep your smears straight, willya?)
July 26th, 2005 at 1:36 pmNote to Lance: Ride, don’t run.
If you get into politics, Republicans will say you don’t have the ball for it.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:37 pmImagine the jokes at the inauguration ball.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:45 pmhe thinks cancer is worse than muslim men who want to subjigate women. not a smart comment.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:50 pmFirst of all, I would like to see the poll data around the question of terrorism and cancer. While I support some government funded research for cancer, why can’t the private sector continue to do the research. Why must the answer always be a bigger government? The government should be in place to perform those tasks that we as a society, cannot do ourselves, i.e. protecting us from terrorism, building roads etc.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:54 pmAnyone taking the bait?
July 26th, 2005 at 1:57 pm“he thinks cancer is worse than muslim men who want to subjigate women. not a smart comment.”
Actually, you’re thinking about Saudi Arabia, not Iraq.
The muslim men who want to subjigate women (and who do, brutally) are Bush’s allies.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:00 pmsteve: When it comes to medical research, the private sector does a piss-poor job. Most drug research consists of tweaking existing drugs so that they are technically new and thus can be re-patented, usually with no significant improvement. Not to mention that we wouldn’t even have that if not for government subsidies. And if by some miracle the private sector did manage to invent a cure for cancer, they’d make us cough up our life savings before we could use it.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:07 pmYou know, I have great respect for Lance and what he has achieved. But these attempts to idolize and create heros…What’s up with that?
Can’t we appreciate people who excel in sports, arts, ets without trying to put them on a pedestal? Does it really make them better that the rest of us?
I know, the publicity is there so use it. But still my cynical side is such that I don’t want a one issue person representing me. Now that isn’t to say that Lance is that but it’s all so limiting. Just because we have a lot of dummies in this country, does that mean we have to push everything at the lowest common denominator?
Lance, you’re great at what you do. Tell us what you think about enviromental regulations, social security, nationalized health care, taxes. The we’ll get back to you reguarding any candidacy you may choose.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:08 pmThe guy rides bicycle better than anybody. Great. Wave the flag. He is a cancer survivor with great fortitude, bravery and focus. He is an example for all of us. Would I vote for him? Probably not. He does not inspire me the way a Paul Hackett inspires me.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:30 pmokay now it makes sense why Drudge reported that France is questioning Lance’s ability to win 7 in a row. The mudslinging has already started.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:31 pmSee also on this http://dearkitty.modblog.com/?show=blogview&blog_id=691390
July 26th, 2005 at 3:26 pmLance is from Texas, how far left do you really think he will lean? More than likely he’ll run as a Republican, he is more use to putting together big business backing for his bike team sponsorship than he is use to being around plain people.
July 26th, 2005 at 3:31 pmdearkitty – nice blog. GREAT taste in music imho.
July 26th, 2005 at 3:36 pmThere are more liberals in Texas than you might think.
July 26th, 2005 at 3:40 pm#24,There are more liberals in Texas than you might think.
Right, the Texas liberals have just been on vacation for the past 8 years.
July 26th, 2005 at 3:46 pmI live in Texas and have had to put up with two miserable govenors in a row (Bush and Perry). Liberal or Conservative; I want Lance now!
July 26th, 2005 at 3:58 pmLance dates a musician who is more than a little liberal, I think he will be a fine addition to the Democratic National Family….after he gets done “tuning guitars for 6 months on her world tour.” (quote from ESPN interview today)
July 26th, 2005 at 4:41 pmI live in Texas, and don’t ever forget our wonderful Ann Richards, Molly Ivans and Jim Hightower. The problem with Texas liberals is that we don’t have the killer instinct that rednecks have. We will have to develop that instinct if we want to take power back. When the smirking chimp went after Ann we thought he was such a stupid son of a bitch he had no chance of winning. We didn’t realize the vast quantities of the rest of the stupid sons of bitches who would turn out to vote for the village idiot that they related to. We can never forget that.
July 26th, 2005 at 5:09 pmAnn Richards, Molly Ivans and Jim Hightower. LOL. What jokes. Lance is from Austin and dates Sheryl Crow, yes he’s a liberal. So what, why do you have to make everything about politics? Kerry was the one who brought up him going into politics. Hey let’s talk about your new CIA hack, well not really new, but you guys used him this weekend to attack the president, what does he know? Not much it would seem:
Meet Larry Johnson
The CIA official turned Democratic spokesman has a pre-9/11 mindset.
ON SATURDAY, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson gave the Democratic party’s weekly radio address and excoriated President Bush for not having fired Karl Rove and others in connection with the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s name to the press. This followed Johnson’s appearance before a panel of House and Senate Democrats on Friday, where he made similar criticisms of the president. A self-described Republican, Johnson argued that the failure of the president to fire Rove and anyone else supposedly involved in the leak had severely damaged national security and would certainly hamper future efforts to recruit informants in the war on terror.
Well, it’s good to see that the former CIA employee is now worried about the war on terror. But it’s a bit late. On July 10, 2001–two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon–Johnson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times (”The Declining Terrorist Threat”) in which he argued that Americans were “bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism” and, in truth, had “little to fear” from terrorism. And, in turn, he rebuked his former colleagues in the national security bureaucracy for using the “fiction” of the terrorist threat to pump up their budgets.
Nor was this Johnson’s first foray into dismissing bin Laden and al Qaeda. Johnson, who also served as the deputy director for the office of counterterrorism at the State Department in the early 90s, was interviewed by PBS’s Frontline for its 1999 program, “Hunting for bin Laden.” According to Johnson, Americans had “tended tomake Osama bin Laden sort of a superman in Muslim garb,” when in reality he is “more of a symptom of a problem” than a looming threat. And while bin Laden “would like to kill Americans . . . wanting to is different from being able to, having the full capabilities in place.” By Johnson’s lights, “Osama bin Laden . . . has not been a very effective organizer or leader. He talks a great game.”
The Democratic party wants to use Larry Johnson as a seemingly safe mouthpiece to attack to the president. But, in doing so, they have adopted someone who fits perfectly the profile of the pre-9/11 CIA: see no evil, hear no evil. As documented in report after report, the CIA’s directorate of operations had no assets in al Qaeda and CIA’s analysts were asleep at the switch when it came to analyzing the scale of the threat posed by bin Laden.
Obviously, the leak of Valerie Plame’s name to the media is not something to be tolerated. And if someone in the White House is responsible for that leak, they should be held accountable. But, that said, the idea that Larry Johnson should be given a platform by Democrats to pontificate about the damage done to national security by the leak is a bit perverse. Their time would be better served by wondering how the Larry Johnsons and Michael Scheuers of the world were allowed to rise to senior levels within the intelligence community in spite of their spotty record of analysis–and perhaps continue to do so.
July 26th, 2005 at 5:34 pmWhatever the crime associated with the leak of Ms. Plame’s name may be, the more serious matter is whether the reforms of the intelligence community put in place by the administration and the Congress are really producing better intelligence. Given the character of some of those reforms–greater centralization and increased bureaucratic lines of authority–one has to wonder. And, at the end of the day, it is how that concern is answered–and not whether Karl Rove, Scooter Libby or some other White House official was behind the leak–that will make Americans appreciably safer or not.
Well, good luck righting your ship. You can start by throwing out Bush 41 and 43, they aren’t real Texans anyway. Then bugman has to go as well.
July 26th, 2005 at 7:10 pmI’d like Lance to go a step further and support single payer/ universal health care. The money we are burning in Iraq could provide health care for all the uninsured/underinsured in America, with change left over to fund some cancer research. In any case, Austin loves Lance, and so do I.
July 26th, 2005 at 8:19 pmYo’ crapple! So what if he left his wife, at least he did just that if it is true…unlike Rove who just cheats on his wife and then keeps on humilating her in public by appearing in functions with his mistress. Yea, now that is a real standard of marital excellence there buddy. Then there is Gingrich, Livingston, Sherwood, Packwood and any other scumwood out there, Chenoweth, et al. Get the point…marital infidelity or failure is not a partisan issue! It is the human condition so get over it!
July 26th, 2005 at 11:31 pmI can visualize the attack ad by the Swift Bike Gits already.
July 27th, 2005 at 12:31 amLance grew up in a single parent home in a trailer park in Plano, Texas. He went to public schools and worked his butt off to get where he is, unlike George W. Bush and his ilk who were born with silver coke spoons up their nose and never did an honest days work in their lives. Hopefully, if Lance runs for public office he will remember where he came from unlike the out-of-touch clowns now in charge of all three branches of the federal government.
July 27th, 2005 at 8:56 amRight, left or center, Armstrong has a point. Cancer is an increasing epidemic in this country, especially among children and teenagers, our canaries in the coal mine. All you ever hear is how much better we get at treating it, never how much cancer rates increase year by year.
You shouldn’t have to be a survivor, as I am, to be very concerned.
July 27th, 2005 at 9:07 amAs I read the above comments, I had to just sit here wondering why it is Democrats keep falling for Republican baiting. First they make some hateful comment about someone, then a line of people make hateful comments about THEM, then they run around telling people about “those angry Democrats.”
I read on somebody’s post yesterday that the Rove infidelity thing seems like something HE would start so he could prove it false. Who CARES if its true or not. If we don’t take the bait, there’s nothing for him to prove, folks.
What we REALLY need to be doing is writing our elected representatives in Washington urging them to ensure we get rid of all those evoting machines that leave no paper trail or all our ranting will have been for naught come next election. Remember, it’s who COUNTS the votes that counts. The last two presidential elections should have made that crystal clear.
Ranting accomplishes absolutely nothing. ACTION accomplishes much. Take a moment to write your representatives right now.
July 27th, 2005 at 9:34 amI’d say the problem lies not in making a hero out of Lance Armstrong, but suggesting that this sports hero (or music star or actor) now apply himself to being a political “hero,” much as Californians thought Schwarzenegger would do the third-act fix-it thing as Governor. “Here, you did well at pumping the pedals–now fix our state.” It’s so naive. We already have a fanatic cyclist in high office, by the way. He pedals, and Rome burns.
Those who are not naive about it are political operatives of the stamp of Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, who would immediately see Armstrong’s “branding” and its heady effect on the wavering eyeballs of the public. Visibility comes first, and Lance’s face is known around the world. That’s enough, in some calculations, for him to run for the rule.
July 27th, 2005 at 9:48 amIf the system worked, the chaff would be seperated from the wheat as a mater of course. However, when political operatives get their hands on an “image”, they color, expand, modify and coach the image into a marketable product regardless of the person’s true qualities.
Hmmm. Sound like the president? Sound like the governor of California?
Armstrong may have sound political potential. He may not. If he doesn’t, he’ll crash and burn when the false image fails.
Hmmm. Sound like the president? Sound like the governor of California?
July 27th, 2005 at 9:55 amClemsy,
July 27th, 2005 at 10:41 amCancer cases are not increasing, our ability to detect cancer is improving. Therfore, we are capturing leasions that were undetected in the past. Cancer is an emotional issue, however, cardiac related diseases kill 4 times as many Americans yearly than cancer, always have. Lance does make a compelling point that the Iraq war money could be used for more productive domestic issues whatever they may be.
Hi David. Early detection is improving, as is treatment. Incidence increase depends on the type of cancer, but many show steady increases, except for prostate cancer which has skyrocketed.
This isn’t a situation in which increased detection causes increased incidence, unless there are lots of people out their whose undetected cancers have gone away on their own.
Reference: http://rex.nci.nih.gov/NCI_Pub_Interface/raterisk/rates17.html
and
http://seer.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/csr/1975_2002/results.pl?csrpages=41
July 27th, 2005 at 11:19 amcrapple commented that lance left his wife…. well, how about newt ginrich…? he left two wives. or how about former representative steve gunderson, the gay republican from wisconsin. REAL family values here, crapple
July 27th, 2005 at 11:36 amnortheast dilema,… kerry didn’t invent infidelity, republican robert packwood did!
July 27th, 2005 at 11:40 amI almost hope Lance doesn’t enter politics. It’s so nice to have someone that is universally adored the way Lance is in this country. Who would have thunk a Texan in France? To me, if he enters politics, he will be immediately reviled by the opposite of whatever side he represents (which apparently is the left). I’m sick enough at the right’s (and left’s sometimes) constant tearing down of people. I love Lance so much that he could be DeLay’s running mate for the White House and I’d vote for him.
July 27th, 2005 at 11:59 amIndeed, if we only spent a fraction of what the war is costing us, we could provide health care for people who don’t have any.
July 27th, 2005 at 12:00 pmDavid B: Did you see that TV program that showed how they can now use dogs for sniffing out cancer in patients?
They put down sample cups of urine and brought the dog in and the dog went and sniffed each cup. He then sat down in front of the cup of urine from a patient with bladder cancer. They also can be used for sniffing out Melanoma.
To me this is incredible, I lost my father to bladder cancer and live in fear of getting it myself.
July 27th, 2005 at 12:07 pmlance is pretty much an atheist. he doesnt have a chance to be elected dogcatcher in this backward country.
and kerry didnt bring up armstrong being a politician, the OLN interviewer asked the question and kerry answered.
July 27th, 2005 at 12:13 pmTo comment number 1….what a ridiculously stupid comment “Lance Armstrong left his wife, of course he’s a lefty. ”
What about your right-wing fascist heros that left their wives:
Ronald Reagan – divorced
Bob Dole–divorced
Newt Gingrich – divorced his wife who was dying of cancer.
Dick Armey – House Majority Leader – divorced. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas – divorced.
Governor John Engler of Michigan – divorced.
Governor Pete Wilson of California – divorced.
George Will – divorced.
Senator Lauch Faircloth – divorced.
Rush Limbaugh – and his current wife, Marta, have six marriages and four divorces between them. Soon to divorce Marta, I think.
Senator Bob Barr of Georgia – not yet 50 years old, has been married three times. He had the audacity to author and push the “Defense of Marriage Act.” The current joke making the rounds on Capitol Hill is “Bob Barr – WHICH marriage are you defending?!?)
Senator Alfonse D’Amato of New York – divorced.
Senator John Warner of Virginia – divorced Elizabeth Taylor.
Governor George Allen of Virginia – divorced.
Representative Helen Chenoweth of Idaho – divorced.
Senator John McCain of Arizona – divorced.
Representative John Kasich of Ohio – divorced.
Representative Susan Molinari of New York (Republican National Convention Keynote Speaker) – divorced.
Nelson Rockefeller — may have lost a presidential nomination because of his divorce.
Your just another misinformed hypocritical right-wing christo-fascist.
July 27th, 2005 at 12:41 pmCancer cases are not increasing, our ability to detect cancer is improving.
Wrong. Our ability to detect cancer EARLY is improving. Once it grows into an inoperable tumor the size of a basketball, it doesn’t require modern technology to detect.
It’s not like we had millions of people walking around their whole lives with cancer, undetected, in the past.
July 27th, 2005 at 1:08 pmDidn’t Lance say his family is now his priority… He needs to be the hero of the cycling world and leave it at that. Besides, you need top be a royal @$$holeto run this country. I think his IQ is a little too high as well, thanks to the recent dumbing down of the position requirements forged by monkeyman and his handlers.
July 27th, 2005 at 1:38 pmOne more thing. Eat your fruits & vegetables and lay off the breaded, fatty foods! Prevention of cancer is the way to go.
One more comment about Lance… He is already a proven sucess on raising funds and awareness for cancer research and treatment. Why fix what is not broken. Stay the course and keep doing what you have already proven works. Running for government will only cloud things and render him less effective on this front becasue there ARE other issues he will be faced with chopping into his main cause…
July 27th, 2005 at 1:45 pmThanks to Dirk, grizzle, Arliss, John and a few others for staying on topic and I agree with them. Lance should pedal not run. Maybe school committee.
July 27th, 2005 at 4:26 pmI hate to say it but, even though he’s on the wrong thread, I agree with fake but accurate also. Give Johnson the Medal of Freedom and get him off stage.
If a bad actor can be governor of California than Lance can certainly win and he is absolutely correct about cancer. A person is much more likely to get Cancer than be attacked by a terrorist.
Just and FYI- it will take a person outside of this administration to get rid or terroism. This administration benefits from terrorism that is whay they aren’t working on catching Bin Laden.
July 27th, 2005 at 4:48 pmWe can’t have a good american like Lance run for el president, we need to save room for nazi son arnold. Even if we have to change the constitution to have a blueblood nazi represent the republician party.
July 27th, 2005 at 9:13 pmLance is a real life superman. Every American should look at this man as the ideal that our great country strives for. To those idiots on this board that mock his comments — for shame. You are mocking the ideals that make our country great.
Here is a man that has overcome the greatest adversities that life could ever put in one’s way. He has chosen the positive road of speaking out on behalf of thousands that have no voice. And you mock him for that?
July 28th, 2005 at 2:09 amI thought it was Eisenhower who invented infidelity — strutting his mistress all over Europe in his jeep? How quickly you republicans dismiss your heroes and with good reason, I might add.
July 28th, 2005 at 5:27 amIs Rush a leftie now? Or how about that Newt? Rush left all three of his moral family vaules wives and that Newt left his while she was bed ridden and in the hospital.
July 28th, 2005 at 1:07 pmLance for Governor? Lance for President? Folks, the t-shirts are already out there…
http://www.cafepress.com/tour7
Personally I agree with those who say that being a great athelete is NOT qualification for political office. If he wants to get in, he should start local (like maybe Mayor of Austin?) He could certainly do a lot of good in office considering the goodwill he has going with the rest of the free world.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:53 pmRepublicans vs. Democrats. Spy vs. Spy. When are you people going to realize the “differences” between Democrats and Republicans, Kerry’s and Bush’s are merely cosmetic. Neither party is anywhere near what the Founding Fathers intended. Both do an admirable job of butchering and twisting the Constitution. Neither deserve support. Lesser of two evils? What a laugh! Choose your death, cancer or terrorists.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:55 pmAlong this line, cancer is terrorism on a cellular level. Terrorists are a cancer on the societal level.
August 6th, 2005 at 8:52 amDear Lance, I had the same cancer you did but I used my research and did not have chemo or radiation and after 22 plus catscans am cancer free. BUT I have been black listed so research fraud could be covered up. If you really care about beating cancer read http://www.cancerfraudbadbiotech.com We don’t need more money ,we need honest people to put criminals who block research in jail. If you care you will act. Thank you. E.A.Greenhalgh
August 25th, 2005 at 12:06 am“republicans are stupid dunder-heads who hate poor people, women, minorities AND cancer research”…..I think that sums up why the left gets marginalized as the “tin-foil-cap” party. Keep blogging, THIS is entertaining…..
October 24th, 2005 at 12:44 pmhay lance!! this is shelby, and i want to become famous, can u please halp me with that? PLEASE!!
February 24th, 2006 at 5:24 pmi think thats really cool the way god let u have another chance to let u live!! god bless u!!
February 24th, 2006 at 5:25 pm[...] Think Progress ” Lance Armstrong Veers Left Lance Armstrong Veers Left. Lance Armstrong’s future as a politician (Texas governor? President?) … Hot topics: Homeland Security Iraq Ethics Politics ThinkFast. Lance Armstrong Veers Left … As a long-time fan of Lance Armstrong as well as a cancer survivor, I really really wish … [...]
March 13th, 2006 at 3:07 am[...] Think Progress Lance Armstrong Veers LeftLance Armstrong Veers Left Lance Armstrong s future as a politician (Texas governor? President?) is the talk of the town , and Armstrong has told Time magazine that he hasn t ruled out [...]
March 19th, 2006 at 12:40 amHay hay.
Oi. i am only on dis site bcuz ma teacher sayz soo. but i hve read this through at least 5 times in amazment =)
What u did/do is fantastic!!!!
GO LANCEEEEEEE. UR A CHAPPIONNN.
Love wat ur doing.
October 25th, 2006 at 12:36 am[...] to clean up …http://www.jamiephelps.com/all/why-lance-armstrong-should-never-admit-to-dopingComments on: Lance Armstrong Veers LeftIf you really care about beating cancer read http://www.cancerfraudbadbiotech.com We don’t need more money [...]
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