Kathryn, the Thompson video you link to certainly offers a serious and responsible approach to American policy toward Africa. But it’s an approach that expresses support for the existing AIDS program and says we should be even more involved in ending the carnage in Darfur. If that were the answer Thompson gave to that voter in South Carolina, there wouldn’t be any reason to question his understanding of the seriousness of Africa’s problems, or his sense of what we might do in response. But given the answer he did give, it seems to me there was a reason, as Gerson suggests. I don’t think that means Thompson is callous, as the Post’s headline called him. But I also don’t think the matter of AIDS in Africa is the ideal place to answer the “what can government do for” line of argument. The video Thompson made about Africa suggests he probably doesn’t think so either.