The foreign policy differences are best defined by their positions on war in general and those in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the global war on terrorism. The now established American presence and interest in the conflict in Mindanao will somehow be affected by either the hawkish McCain stance or the more dovish position of Obama. Because American assistance to the Philippines has of late emphasized the South, whatever happens there will obviously also influence the international assistance picture elsewhere in the country.

While McCain himself is not known for strong positions on religious issues, his choice of a fervently conservative vice-presidential candidate likely means that his government will continue the essentially fundamentalist inclinations of the Bush administration. On the other hand Obama appears to have a more liberal orientation which may change the directions of the federal government’s position on issues like stem-cell research as well as the orientation of the judges appointed to federal courts with respect to abortion and other topics of interest to religious groups. In the Philippines, these differences may have significant repercussions on reproductive health programs.

Ironically, it is probably on domestic policies that the differences between the two American candidates are likely to have significant effects on this country. Despite his claim to being a reformist, McCain is a classic pro-big business Republican while Obama is more small enterprise-oriented.

For the health sector in the Philippines, a Republican win would favor continued resistance of major multinational drug firms for reforms of the pharmaceutical market. On the other hand, a Democratic win would favor health care reforms in the United States which may be mirrored by efforts to change things in our own health sector.

Overall, McCain’s fighter pilot hell-raising Annapolis background is close to the George W. Bush cowboy American image. He is therefore quite likely to continue the major features of the last eight years of Republican rule. On the other hand, Obama’s international childhood and community worker past may very well suggest softer, more socially conscious approaches to global problems.

Such differences may be significant in influencing in the orientations of such health-related global undertakings as the fight against communicable disease, international migration of health workers, and the application of patent agreements to the pharmaceutical industry.

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During this American presidential campaign, a new phrase has been reintroduced into the political lexicon – "American exceptionalism." Both candidates claim to be proponents of this purportedly unique American trait that rolls together the 230 years of American history, culture, experiences, and traditions (including emphatically the overall influence of religious experiences).

Unfortunately, American exceptionalism is sometimes interpreted to mean that because of its unique position as guardian of the world’s freedom, the United States is free to do whatever it wants in war or peace – including things like the Balangiga massacre in Samar at the beginning of the 20th century and the Abu Ghraib abuses at the start of the present century.

As a matter of fact, a US Department of Defense policy guide dated 7 June 2006 appears to specifically authorize American military physicians to violate the World Medical Associations Malta Declaration on torture and hunger strikes when ordered to do so. Even the American Medical Association has objected to this policy because medical-ethics standards are universal. Thus the AMA has stated that the defense establishment’s position should not be acceptable to the medical profession.

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Arthroscopic surgery is a surgical intervention using the new fiber-optics technology to visualize structures inside joints so that they can be removed or repaired without the need for the extensive operations that used to be associated with orthopedic surgery. At the time it was introduced, arthroscopic surgery was touted as a breakthrough in the treatment of a host of joint problems including osteoarthritis of the knees.

A recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that this may not necessarily be the case. Except for conditions where symptoms are directly linked to surgically repairable pathology such as physical tears in the protective knee cartilage (or meniscus), arthroscopic surgery was found to be actually inferior to medical treatment and physical therapy in restoring pain-free physical function to an osteoarthritis-damaged knee.