This piece from Forbes Magazine is worth reading as a critique of the Obama Presidential Advisory Group draft framework on Alzheimer’s published this week.  The Group have set a goal of  effectively treating and preventing Alzheimer’s by 2025.

Obama and Nixon would make strange bedfellows.  But the last paragraph of the article is perhaps the most salient in pointing to the fact that while we have not achieved Nixon’s goal of beating cancer, his pledge focused efforts and awareness.  The rest is history.

We should beware the person or organisation – and I can think of a number – who state that they ‘will’ beat or cure this or that by a certain date.   That way lies failure.  But bold ambition of the nature expressed by Obama’s group can be an energising force.  If only we could lose our English reticence to do the same sometimes.

Forbes rightly points out that the devil is in the detail here.  It suggests that more thought needs to be put into the mechanics necessary to create the right momentum.  We’ll see how the debate unfolds.