This has IMPLICATIONS for health care...

Yesterday, I attended a part-talk and part-press conference given by CA Senator Barbara Boxer. Boxer toured the UC Berkeley Institute for Quantitative Biosciences to “learn more about green technology programs being researched by the interdisciplinary department,” according to the Daily Californian.

Boxer, who has not made visits to UCB a priority during her 16 years of service, was a welcome presence and an insight into national politics for those who are unabashed policy wonks (like me). However, I think her visit signified something greater.

Politicians (especially those of the Democratic variety) are often between a rock and a hard place when it comes to university constituencies. There is no guarantee that students will be registered to vote (or registered to vote in a specific district) and too many visits to a campus can often be seen as pandering to the “liberal elite.” Boxer’s record of visits to UCB shows this and for what it’s worth, I can offer some compelling anecdotal evidence to support this as well :).

Now, perhaps Boxer came to UCB because she is not running for election this year and has a safe seat if she does choose to run again in 2010. And, of course, it is also likely that she values UCB’s research achievements and contributions. But UCB has been making research breakthroughs at least since 1992 (when Boxer was elected), so why was this seen as an opportune time to come for a visit? (And no, she did not really try to soothe any fears about the impending end of the world from the Wall Street melt down.)

This optimist thinks that her visit was symbolic of the greater access being afforded to youth through the Obama campaign. I know that politicians visited universities and engaged youth before Obama (and some might call this an optimistic view of the world), but never before have young people made up such a potentially large portion of the electorate. Obama is changing the framework through which we participate in and learn about the political process, and if in doing so his actions encourage others to do so as well, then all the better!