Organ Procurement Rights Association: REMARKS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY AT THE DIAMOND DUTCH TREAT LUNCHEON, SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008, AT 12:30 PM

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

REMARKS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY AT THE DIAMOND DUTCH TREAT LUNCHEON, SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008, AT 12:30 PM

John McCain has become the presumptive Republican nominee for president. He is a good choice for the GOP and I am certainly going to support him. I am withdrawing from the presidential race this year and might start a campaign for 2012 instead.
And I'm going to ask the Democratic candidates to join McCain, TN Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander and Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and other elected officials to either adopt my plan or craft a better one. Obama's slogan is "Yes, we can..." Clinton is trying to top it with "Yes, we will..." My slogan is "Yes, I Do..."
"Yes, I do have a plan to solve the shortage of organs for transplant. Do you?" It's a question every candidate for office should have to answer! We may establish a 501(c)3 group in order to focus more attention on the organ issue. And we will continue to utilize our alternative campaign website, DiamondForPresident.blogspot.com,
to encourage supporters to suggest solutions to other issues. That website invites anyone to submit legislative proposals, which would then be refined by other visitors.

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David F. Diamond in the Media

The Memphis Flyer (May 9, 2007) Tancredo vs. Diamond: The Presidential Debate Takes a Sci-Fi Turn

Excerpt from the alternative weekly: The MEMPHIS FLYER -- Dec 27 - Jan 2, 2008

Politics Feature -- Odds and Ends from 2007
Awards are in order for obscure and not-so-obscure achievements in the world of politics.

BY JACKSON BAKER | DECEMBER 27, 2007
...
Most Unexpected (and Most Overlooked) Passing of the Baton: the withdrawal from the presidential race of Republican congressman Tom Tancredo (whose candidacy almost no one had noticed) and the subsequent claim by Memphis presidential candidate David F. Diamond (whose candidacy even fewer people had noticed) that Coloradan Tancredo's downfall had begun with his failure at a nationally televised debate to understand a call-in question from Diamond.

The Memphian had asked: "Do you have a plan to solve the shortage of organs donated for transplant?" Tancredo drew a blank, accusing the questioner of being a mad cloner.

Diamond's prize: the Tancredo body part of his choice.
...
========================

What'll you take for that kidney? by Wendi C. Thomas
Memphis' Commercial Appeal Sunday, September 16, 2007

He's the Republican presidential contender you've never heard of: David Diamond. He's running for the GOP nomination -- and I use "running" in the loosest of terms. His war chest contains $124, of which $100 was donated by his mother. His platform is one plank: Organ donation. He wants families to be compensated for the donated organs of their loved ones.

Even reluctant donors "would add their organs to the supply if they knew that their estate would be paid an appropriate amount for their organs," Diamond explains in one of his brochures. Yep, Diamond, a former radio deejay, is advocating an open, but regulated market for organs in an attempt to solve the organ shortage. More than 97,000 people are waiting for transplants.

Diamond has made plans to donate his body to science. He's not in need of a transplant, and neither are any of his friends or family. No, his obsession with organs was born in the mid-1980s, when a representative from the United Network of Organ Sharing came on his radio show to discuss the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act, which in part banned the interstate sale of organs.

Since then, Diamond, who once ran a hot dog stand, has been consumed with ideas on solving the shortage.

It's hard to get a read on whether Diamond, 76, realizes how unrealistic his political aspirations are, especially when he starts running through his to do list. He's got to get the correct e-mail address on his brochures and find a new webmaster. And he has to build his base of financial supporters, which include a former co-worker now living in Florida who gave $23. "I got to put out a release about him being my Florida campaign manager," he muses. Diamond makes his presidential plan sound simple: There will be a deadlock at the nominating convention and he, the dark horse, will slip through. Then, he'll adopt the platform of the number two contender, who he will also graciously invite to be his running mate.

Quirky man plus an unusual idea usually equals easily dismissed. I mean, paying for an organ just doesn't seem right. It should be a gift, we've been trained to believe, given selflessly by grieving families who recognize the good that can come from death. Diamond disagrees, even if he doesn't explain it as convincingly as does, say columnist Charles Krauthammer in an 1999 column about Pennsylvania's efforts to pay $300 in funeral expenses for someone whose organs were donated at death. Krauthammer wrote, "What is wrong with rewarding people ... for a dead relative's organ?" Diamond also has an ally in Lloyd Cohen, a law professor at George Mason University who has argued in favor of monetary compensation for organ donation for years. To rely on the altruistic notions of families with a dying relative is just silly, says Cohen. "Why let it rest on charity? Even charitable people don't feel charitable all the time." The simple brilliance of the idea, Cohen says, should be the focus: "If you pay people something, you'll get more of it."

It's a novel idea, and that's exactly what the organ shortage issue needs -- new approaches, even those that might seem controversial on first glance. Controversial ideas are often more palatable when proposed by more conventional people, but then, it's often the out-of-the-box people who have out-of-the-box ideas.

Cohen agrees that Diamond's political chances are none, but he's complimentary all the same. "David Diamond, God bless him. If he brings more attention to this question, all the better."

And in the end -- and the end will not include Diamond in office -- if more of us simply inform our families of our wish to donate organs, then Diamond's campaign may not have been in vain. To learn more about David Diamond's donation idea, go to davidfdiamond.blogspot. com. To get information on being an organ donor and to print a card to sign, go to organdonor.gov.

Contact Wendi C. Thomas at 529-5896 or e-mail thomasw@ commercialappeal.com.
============================

And there's this: A question I provided was used in the San Diego GOP debate of presidential candidates. This is the transcript of a phone interview I had in May of last year with
Des Moines Bureau's Rocky Mountain News reporter Michael (M.E.) Sprengelmeyer on 5-07-07.
(IOWA HOTLINE -- 515 244-2396)

MES; How did this work? I'm wondering if you were surprised when your question was used or did you actively lobby for your question to be used? It's quite an honor to get that spot.

DFD: I was surprised because I assumed that hundreds if not thousands of people had sent in questions, and what was your second question?

Did you just simply submit it by e-mail and then walk away from it?

Yeah, I just submitted it by e-mail and just walked away, I did not do any campaigning to get it used. I just got lucky or I just asked the right question. Actually, the question I asked was a little bit longer and they shortened it, which I understand. I had said, to set the stage more fairly for whoever happened to get the chance to answer the question; I said "Six thousand nine hundred people will die unnecessarily this year because of the shortage of organs for transplant. Do you have a plan to solve the organ shortage? If not, why not?" That was essentially my full question. As I said, they condensed it a little bit, I understood that. Even though, I thought my question was a fairer way to put it to whoever answered because otherwise it came like a bolt out of the blue, I guess...

It kind of struck Tancredo that way. He even two days later, 3 days later, was on the ABC News this week with George Stephanopolis, he watched that video, there is a link on my blog, but he was still not even remembering what the question was. He quietly laughed and so forth, you know.

It's not a mainstream topic for candidates, but that's the campaign I want to run and I think it's valid to do it the way I'm doing it, as you can see from the material I've sent you.

Now tell me, when did you announce your campaign?

I guess March the 15 was first release I sent to the media. I sent to our local media and to a whole lot of national media , New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, etc., etc.

I hope you'll keep my e-mail and keep sending me those.

Oh sure. I've got you on my list now, Michael.

Good, very good. On your radar. Did you intend to ask the question specifically of Tom Tancredo or to any candidate?

I said, put this to all of them, but any or all of them, or whatever the format provided. I think they asked it you wanted it to go to all or to a specific one. And I think I said all.

How are you campaigning, are you traveling around the country or doing it by e-mail or by phone. Tell me some of the things you are doing during your campaign, sir.

I'm running a poor man's campaign for President. I don't have any wealth, I don't have any contributors at this point, although I'm open to that. I think I will get contributions from people who have either had transplants, or need transplants, or are friends or relatives of people who need or have had transplants, because they will understand, I think better, the rational of what I'm proposing which I really believe will solve the shortage of organs. And it's gotten worse with each passing year. The first year in 1984-85, there were maybe a hundred or two hundred people who died because they couldn't get a transplant. Each year it has increased by a few hundred and now it's..., the latest figure's about 6900 people who won't get an organ and will die because of the shortage. I didn't answer your question...I'm not going around the country because I don't have the budget to do that. I'm doing what I can by email, news releases and by personal contacts locally with Republicans that I happen to know. I have talked with the Shelby County Republican chairman, Bill Giannini. As I expected, he did not say "I'm going to endorse you", but he did give me encouraging words and said, why don't you get ahold of so-and-so and talk to them and so forth. I'm hoping...I've asked him to let me speak with his executive committee and I hope that will happen in the near future.

You know, Congressman Tom Tancredo, even the fellow that ended up getting the question from you, kinda of acts like a vehicle for your message. He got your point out nationally, but even he, he's running a campaign that's focused primarily on one issue, and that's immigration. And he has said it various times when we ask him, 'is your intention to win, or is your intention to just make sure that this debate for the White House doesn't go on without them addressing immigration? A lot of the times he talks about, "well, I just want to get the issue out there, and if I win, well, you know..." Winning for him is secondary as long as he gets his issue addressed. Is that the same for you or do you wanna actually want to win here? Which, or is it both?

I want to win, but my fallback position is, if I don't win, then I have served the public interest by focusing public attention on this issue, which no one has yet done to any extensive degree. I have worked on the subject for a dozen years. When I was doing a talk show about 12-15 years ago, I interviewed the local head of the organ transplant operation here, and among the questions I asked him was, 'could people buy an organ?' And he said, "oh no, no, no, that's illegal under the Federal Organ Transplant law." And I didn't follow up that question at the time, but later I thought to myself, gee, if people could buy, that would increase the supply and then I began to study it. And I ended up Googling a lot of things and learning a lot, and also I went around to the nearby states into Arkansas and Mississippi and nearby Tennessee and surveyed people and told them of the plan I was developing and asked what they thought. About 80% of them said, yeah, that would solve the problem. And I thought, somebody's got to pay attention. I went to the medical reporter for the Commercial Appeal, our daily newspaper here, and asked her if she'd do a story, and essentially she said, "Oh no, that's not gonna happen. We wouldn't touch that." She had the kind of mindset that I think most people who have any awareness of the organ transplant business have, which is, let's just let the system go along, they have a plan to solve the shortage, which is educate the public. Well, they've had 23 years to educate the public, and they haven't solved the problem. I hope you're taping all this, I'm going too fast for you. So that's how I began to develop the interest and I worked on it for 10 years. I said when I started on this, to myself, 'I'm going to give this a decade, and if I can't solve the problem, or make some headway, I'll give up.' And at the 10 year point, I gave up essentially. That was about two years ago. And then the other day I saw some, a couple of months ago, I saw some fresh stories about others having a interest in providing a financial incentive for people to provide organs, and I had known of some of that development, and I thought, maybe there's a chance, and then I began to see these stories about the presidential candidates and there wasn't a good choice and people were not happy with the choices they had in the Republican party, and I said, 'hey, I'm a Republican, I'll run for President, and maybe I'll win if I just focus on this issue and adopt the plan that I have for becoming the nominee, I don't know if you've read that yet, but that's included in what I've sent you. If I should get the nomination, then I would ask the guy who ran almost as well as I, the #2 man in the Republican contest to become my vice-presidential nominee, and I will then adopt all of his positions on all the other issues, because I think at that point in time there will be a consensus among Republicans having voted mostly for that guy, that that's what they really want in a candidate, so I'll be happy to adopt his positions and of course, whatever the Republican Party platform is. I'm a believer in the Republican Party, I mean I'm not a rigid lockstep Republican. But I think they have the better mindset and view of what this country needs to make it work best, so I'll be happy if I can become the nominee, and if not, hopefully, I'll be able to get at least all the other Republican and all the Democratic candidates to say, I'm gonna pay some attention to the organ transplant problem and here's my plan to solve it. If they have a better plan than mine, fine.

For someone who has no money, and no name recognition, and a lot of us outside of Tennessee had never heard of you until today, you can't do better than getting a question like that on the very first Republican debate.

I thought so, too. I was delighted. I didn't even see the debate myself. A friend of mine in California called me the next day and said, "Hey, you got on the debate" and I said, oh great! I'm glad and I'm going to keep on doing it the way I'm doing it, because I have no alternative. I'm not wealthy, I'm just a retired guy, who...

What is your occupation, besides some of the radio and broadcasts you've done?

I'm sorry, did I send you my resume?

You didn't send me that. No.

I will. I've had a 40-year career in primarily in broadcasting. I've worked in politics to some extent. I've helped a couple candidates run for office years ago and I ran for Congress myself back in Baltimore decades ago against now Senator Paul Sarbanes. He and I were running for the House of Representatives at the time, and I was in a district that was 3-to-1 Democratic, so as a Republican, I didn't stand much of a chance to begin with. But I got a third of the votes in the general election, so I thought, oh well, I got at least all of my Republicans and some of his Democrats.

So now you are retired, sir?

Yes, I'm 75 years old.

Oh, you're 75. Well you deserve to be retired, but why do you want this new job?

Because I care, I think I've got a solution to this problem that nobody is willing to address or focus on. Now there's another guy named Lloyd Cohen, who's a professor of law at George Mason University just outside of Washington. He's worked on it longer than I have. Google his name and you'll see all of the stuff he's done, but he's gotten discouraged as I did, because it's just such a hard struggle. But this solution is so obvious, and it's just that the people who are asked about it don't want to consider the idea of letting a person sell an organ, they say, "Oh, it's ghoulish, it's unethical." Well, it isn't unethical. Which is more ethical, to not permit the sale of organs or to let 6,900 people die this year -- because you don't allow it?

Sir, I hope you will keep me on your e-mail list, do you have a Web site I can go to or anything like that?

I have a blog which I do not actively work. I put something on it at least about once every 6 months. You're welcome to go to that. The URL is davidfdiamond.blogspot.com

Well, I'll put a link to that on my web site too, how's that? Well, thank you very much for calling me back, and I'm going to take that editorial and post it on our web site. It will take a couple of hours for me to get all of this work done.

Will you send me whatever you do, e-mail me or whatever?

When I'm done putting it all up there, I will send you an e-mail. Thank you for calling. What is your phone number?

901-761-5580. May I make a suggestion? Contact Tom Tancredo and say, 'look, here's what Diamond was trying to do, give him all that material and say, '"Now what do you think of his idea? And what is your plan, do you have one?"

I'm going to see him all day tomorrow.

Hold his feet to the fire and then we'll go on to the next candidate.

Very good. Thank you, sir. Bye.

Organ Procurement Rights Association

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

REMARKS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY AT THE DIAMOND DUTCH TREAT LUNCHEON, SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008, AT 12:30 PM

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MEMO TO MEDIA FROM PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER DAVID F. DIAMOND OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE