In all of my years at ACR meetings, I have never witnessed so much talk about an election nor the display of so many campaign buttons and t-shirts. I suspect that some people from red states could, in the city of San Francisco—a preserve of blue political sentiments par excellence—raise their political voices and, in the tradition of the city in another realm, come out of the closet, so to speak.
Perhaps my political leanings are apparent, but just about everyone to whom I spoke assumed that I supported Obama and that “we” represented the rheumatology wing of the Democratic Party. I felt that same way I do the week before the Duke–Carolina basketball game when someone at the medical center says that “we” are going to win. Of course, “we” are the Blue Devils and there is no way in hell that “we” could be the despised, reviled, and contemptible Tar Heels.
Ambivalence at Home and Abroad
Not surprisingly, the ACR contingent from Europe was just about all in favor of Obama. In most of the countries there, even the most conservative parties stand to the left of our liberals. The Europeans are social democrats after all and, while private healthcare insurance may be growing, the European countries all have tax-funded universal healthcare coverage. I did not meet any Russians in San Francisco. It’s too bad that they don’t come to spend their petro-rubles on real CME, because an exchange with that colossus would be very worthwhile.
The interest of the Europeans in U.S. politics is not a matter of idle curiosity. The world is flat as a pancake; witness the financial ripples around the world because of the failure of Iceland’s banks. In a global economy, where all transactions are linked electronically at lightning speed, when the U.S. catches a cold, everyone sneezes. Right now there is a whole lot of sneezing going on. If I had money to invest, I would take a strong position in Kleenex stock.
As evident in myriad conversations, remarks, and even jokes, just about everyone at the ACR was worried that, economically, we may be in the midst of a “big one.” During sessions in the dark of the giant halls, people peered down at the flickering screens of their BlackBerries and iPhones to catch the latest on the Dow Jones Index as the stock market bounced wildly. More than one lecturer talked about the state of his 401(k). As a scientist at an ACR meeting, when I hear the words “401K,” I usually think of a really big protein and not a retirement plan.
