I have a gut feeling that President Bush is headed for a serious bruising on this issue, as are at least some of the 180 Republicans and 14 Democrats who voted last week against the stem-cell-research bill that passed the House.
These members may look back ruefully on this vote as one that helped get them tossed out of office. After all, every American who has a relative with one of these diseases — which means nearly every American — is beginning to understand the issue in a new way: it’s “pro-cure” vs. “anti-cure,” with the anti-stem-cell folks in danger of being swept into the medical waste bin of history…
Unless there’s another war, stem cells will become one of the defining issues of the 2006 campaign. Look for smart Democrats to run ads with relatives of the afflicted (“My sister has Parkinson’s,” “My father has Alzheimer’s”) pointing out that Congressman X is so extreme, he voted against a bill supported by many Republicans to begin curing these diseases. This will inevitably lead to backpedaling and compromise and the victory of a broad-based “pro-cure movement” that may help save not just my life, but your cousin’s or your mother’s or your own.
