Is it possible that nowadays more people are beheaded in Mexico than in Iraq? I'm not aware that candidate Obama--perhaps not wanting to start a conversation about his biography--ever addressed the folly of the drug war in detail. In 2004 he did call the enterprise an "utter failure" and said it was time to "rethink" marijuana laws (short of legalization), but you didn't hear much of that during the campaign. It'll be interesting to see whether his administration changes American policy in any substantial way.
Update: Foreign Policy called the drug war one of the big unaddressed issues of the campaign:
Both McCain and Obama have praised Calder