Joe Biden For President—Of
MD Anderson
By
Leonard Zwelling
Now that Vice President Biden has decided not to run against
Mrs. Clinton for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, he
clearly is going to have time on his hands as well as energy after January 20,
2017. That should be just about the time that the Regents should be looking for
a replacement for The Ronald at MD Anderson. By then Dr. DePinho will have had
his five years to cure cancer and come up a bit short (about 200,000 miles from
the Moon) and have spent more of the state’s money than President Kennedy spent
getting to the actual moon.
Why the hell not hire Mr. Biden since his passion seems to
be directed toward fighting cancer and his personal history makes it likely
that he will appreciate what real cancer fighters do and that some of the best
of them are here in Houston?
In the article in the NY
Times on November 2, Al Yung is actually quoted as having influenced the
Vice President as Dr. Yung was Mr. Biden’s son’s physician. I am a little
troubled by those whispering in the Veep’s ear that the course being followed
by Sherlock DePinho and Dr. Watson is the one advocated by Dr. Patrick
Shoon-Shiong, but there is hope that Dr. Yung, an actual cancer doctor and
cancer survivor, might be able to talk some sense into the new President Biden
of MD Anderson to shift the strategy toward both more basic science to
understand the true underpinnings of malignancy and more clinical care to help
those already afflicted.
Just think of the power of a President Joe Biden of MD
Anderson to raise both awareness and money to assist the plight of academic
cancer centers, particularly in the era that he helped usher in when he
supported the ACA as a “big f-ing deal.” Part of the dilemma in which academia
finds itself is due to the ObamaCare’s impact on the insurers who are now
viewing academia as both pricey and of insufficient value to warrant continued
inclusion in their PPOs, if there will be any PPOs left. Joe helped get the
cancer centers into this mess, maybe he can help them out.
The WeTBaH women (West Texas Big Hair) will also love Joe. (Who
could resist that smile and those gentle hands?) Imagine Joe as President of MD
Anderson sitting on the board of the Houston Grand Opera, the Children’s Museum
and not on any corporate ones, although he may actually know something about
corporate America as opposed to the last two MD Anderson Presidents.
I think we should start a letter writing campaign to the
Board of Regents advocating that the Regents approach the current Vice
President about serving the people of Texas as the new President of MD
Anderson.
I mean really—how much worse could it get?
