Barack Obama made an unintentional attack on Joe Biden, his running mate on the Democratic Presidential ticket, for his long legislative record on anabolic steroids. Joseph Biden has been on an anti-steroid crusade for almost two decades; Biden is responsible for key legislation criminalizing anabolic steroids and diverting significant government resources in a misguided attempt at fighting steroids in sports.
Obama attacked Joseph Biden’s position on anabolic steroids (without specificially attributing it to his vice presidential candidate by name) on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning“. Obama suggested that congressional obsession with anabolic steroids was largely a waste of time and that the federal government had far more important things to worry about (”Obama Differs from McCain on Steroids,” October 2).
“I gotta admit that seeing a lot of congressional hearings around steroid use is not probably the best use of congressional time,” Obama said.
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But Obama suggested this morning there were more important things on which the government should focus.
“Kids are watching sports. They’re modeling themselves on athletes,” Obama said. “It’s a serious problem, but it’s one that you want to see the leagues themselves handle in a more appropriate way. We’ve got nuclear weapons and a financial meltdown to worry about. We shouldn’t be worrying about steroids as much as I think sometimes we do.”
Some people think that Barack Obama was criticizing the Republican presidential nominee John McCain which he was most likely attempted to do. But Obama’s campaign disagrees with this interpretation of his comments.
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USA Today recently asked the the “top” presidential campaigns about their positions on anabolic steroids and anabolic steroids in sports (”Where the candidates stand on sports issues,” May 8).
Senator Hillary Clinton supports federal efforts to eliminate steroids from professional sports:
Senator Clinton sees our sports leagues as public trusts and our sports heroes as key public role models for our children, and believes in the importance of promoting clean, drug-free professional sports. In her view, leagues should take the lead in vigorously enforcing their own strict drug policies, but if we were to see frequent and flagrant continued abuse of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes, she would certainly speak out against it as president and consider appropriate federal action.
Senator Barack Obama supports spending additional federal funds to enforce existing steroid laws:
As a father and an avid sports fan, I understand the dangers that performance enhancing drugs pose for athletes, as well as the teenagers who seek to emulate them, not to mention the effect that these drugs have on the integrity of sports. As president, I would use the bully pulpit of my office to warn Americans about the dangers of performance enhancing drugs, and I would put greater resources into enforcement of existing drug laws. I would also convene a summit of the commissioners of the professional sports leagues, as well as university presidents, to explore options for decreasing the use of these drugs.
Senator John McCain supports federal steroid education efforts promoting “devastating” and “destructive” side effects of steroids, aggressive prosecution of steroid-related cases, enforcement of DSHEA to keep anabolic steroids out of dietary supplements, and “necessary support” to help anti-doping agencies detect undetectable designer anabolic steroids:
Since the beginning of the steroids scandals John McCain has consistently said that the important aspect of the issue is not the well-being of the multi-milliondollar professional athletes who choose to use banned substances to cheat themselves and their sport, but rather the effects these substances are having on our youth. In a simple point and click, our children today are able to obtain illegal performance-enhancing substances on the Internet in just a few days. The use of these substances among adolescents in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions and the health effects of usage are devastating — leading to depression, suicide, stunted growth, and the deterioration of the liver, kidneys, bones, and reproductive organs. We have every reason to believe that what kids are doing indubitably will show up in doctor’s offices 15 years from now, so John McCain believes it is imperative that we act now.
A McCain administration would continue an aggressive prosecutorial approach, and will focus more on educating our youth about the destructive effects of these substances. And it’s not just performance-enhancing drugs. Our kids are obtaining prescription drugs over the Internet at an alarming rate. His administration would encourage schools to include lessons concerning the adverse health effects of these substances as part of physical education, and disseminate these educational messages at the grassroots level. In addition, my administration would ensure that dietary supplement manufacturers are in compliance with the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) and not seeking shelter for substances that were never intended to be protected under the Act. A McCain administration would continue to pressure professional sports leagues to adopt zero-tolerance doping policies, and ensure that the Olympic athletes that represent our Nation do so with honor. Also, A McCain administration will provide the necessary support to research laboratories that are working to outpace the science developed by those who seek substances undetectable to testing.
USA Today did not ask the campaign of Representative Ron Paul for his position on anabolic steroids in sports, but his campaign has unapologetically gone on record as being completely against the war on drugs which would logically include the war on steroids:
For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved. This war has been behind most big government policy powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy.
