Last night I attended a forum on faith, values and poverty with the three leading Democratic presidential candidates. The forum was hosted by Sojourners, a partner of the Millennium Campaign, and was broadcast live by CNN. It was the first forum of this kind, with candidates talking about their faith and how that drives them on public policy issues such as poverty.

Sojourners has long worked to end poverty- both domestically and internationally. A wide range of faith groups have been key allies in raising awareness of the MDGs and putting pressure on government leaders to act. I was really excited to see how the candidates would respond to how their faith motivates them to tackle poverty, and what they would do, if elected, to make poverty eradication a top priority. The auditorium was packed, filled with people of all ages and races, people in business suits and others in olive fatigues. The energy- and the heat inside- were high, and all the candidates received huge applause and lots of love.

All three candidates have already made some key pledges. In March, John Edwards gave a foreign policy speech in which he pledged to meet the second MDG of universal education, to increase clean water funding sixfold, and to appoint a Cabinet-level development official, which many say is key to elevating the political profile of and support for development. Barack Obama pledged to increase US development assistance to $50 billion by 2012, which would be a major increase of the scale required to meet the MDGs. Hillary Clinton has also made universal primary education a priority, as she recently re-introduced an Education for All Act.

Unfortunately global poverty never came up- either in the questions or from the candidates. Edwards was asked about evolution and gay marriage. Clinton was asked how prayer got her through well-publicized marital crises. When asked about poverty, Obama talked only about domestic poverty. It was disappointing for the ONE Campaign, which was one of the forum sponsors and which will launch its ONE Vote initiative on June 11, with a goal of elevating the profile of global poverty issues in the presidential races. CNN reportedly resisted a question about the MDGs and the candidates apparently feel that domestic issues resonate more with Americans.

The forum showed both how far we poverty campaigners have come and the distance we have yet to go. Sojourners scored a real coup in bringing on the top Democratic contenders and recruiting CNN as a sponsor. (A Republican forum is planned for the fall.) Two years ago, I’m not sure I would have predicted we’d see poverty as the topic of a presidential forum. This is real progress. But global poverty is still not seen as top tier voter issue. As a result, world leaders can go to the G8 and feel like they can make historic commitments without suffering the voters’ wrath when they fail to deliver.

So hopefully we’ll continue to make greater-than-expected progress, and by this time next year, when the Democratic and Republican candidates are preparing for the national conventions, not only will they be talking about global poverty, but they’ll honestly fear the consequences if they fail to keep their promises.

Carol Welch is the US Coordinator of the UN Millennium Campaign.