Unfortunately, the drastic decline in funding for the NIH is forcing academic medical centers across the country to curtail lifesaving research while crimping our ability to create high-paying, sustainable jobs. By increasing funding to NIH to where it should be today, Mr. Obama will be benefiting the nation's physical and economic health.
Dr. E. Albert Reece is vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland and dean of its School of Medicine.
Douglas MacKinnon: Reach out to Republicans
As a conservative, I want to congratulate President-elect Barack Obama for his historic and inspiring win. More than that, for the good of the nation, I want to wish him every success. Come noon on Jan. 20, he will be our president. No matter our party affiliation or ideology, his victories will be our victories and his failures will be our failures.
During the course of the endless campaign, Mr. Obama spoke eloquently and often about working with Republicans to get this country moving in a positive direction, with bipartisan solutions. As one who has worked on three presidential campaigns, I've heard that mantra before. It is my hope that he can make his desire a reality.
Barack Obama is going to inherit the Oval Office at one of the most perilous and uncertain times in our nation's history. Not one person, one party or one set of ideas can move us forward. Our new president-elect seems to know that.
Regardless of how he forms his new administration, now is a time for all of us to celebrate. We just elected an African-American man to be the next president of the United States. That is a testament to the greatness of our country.
Douglas MacKinnon, a former White House and Pentagon official, is author of the new novel "The Apocalypse Directive."
