Back in the 1980s, AIDS activists employed this technique of “birdogging” (going to the public appearance of a target and trying to get him or her to commit to a new policy) to put the HIV/AIDS crisis on the map. We were preparing to use the same strategy. Now, however, our demand was not limited to just domestic policy, but rather has evolved, as the global epidemic has evolved,  to demand that our foreign policy has to act on the international HIV/AIDS crisis. More specifically, in this particular instance, our goal was targeted at Presidential hopefuls Obama and Edwards to get them to commit to $50 billion dollars over the next 5 years to fight AIDS, a funding level that experts agree will be needed to turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic.