Of course the ads work. The message that they tell is that "Stem cell research will save lives, and Republicans oppose that."

The only problem with all of that is that it is a lie on top of another lie.

Republicans don't oppose stem cell research. Republicans, at least some of them, don't even oppose the morally debatable practice of "embryonic stem cell research." While Republicans have taken the morally, ethically and scientifically moderate position of NOT banning ANY form of stem cell research, Democrats have taken the extreme position of demanding taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research.

As long as that true message is obfuscated by Democrats, they will naturally gain the advantage.

Shame on anyone who participates in any of those Democratic ad campaigns. Shame on you, Michael J. Fox. Anytime you want a serious debate on the subject, get together a tv crew and go debate columnist Charles Krauthammer on the subject. As for the expectation that there is an imminent cure for Parkinson's if only there were federal funding for stem cell research, I think you better hop into the old Delorean and fire up the flux capacitor...

Glad to see Dems with a wedge issue, and glad to see Michael J. Fox get the attention, even if it took a unhinged right-wing pundit to amp it up.

Michael exhibits (and frankly, has always exhibited) more character and class in his unsteady pinky than the bulbous bombast himself could muster in a lifetime of fundraisers.

I agree with Elephantman, and as it happens I personally identify strongly with the position the poor, beleaguered GOP is in.

For some time now I've taken the morally and ethically moderate stance of NOT taking out a gun and firing it at family services cops when they come to my house and ask me about those child support payments for the kids I fathered out of wedlock. It's not that I oppose the morally debateable system of child welfare -- it's just that I don't think any of my money should go toward supporting it.

My local municipality, however, has taken the EXTREME position of DEMANDING my money as some kind of legal, ethical, and civic "obligation to society".

There are even some crackpot liberals who claim that there's a connection between government spending and imminent improvements in the health and well-being of chilren, and the fabric of our nation as a whole. I wish they would all go debate the issue with someone serious and responsible, like journalist Rush Limbaugh.

Way to go, Elephantman!

When I said I was glad Michael is engaging Americans in the election with his stem cell research ads, I was really way off base. I don't know what I was thinking.

America must conserve its treasury for important expenditures such as helping our children fight the crusade against foreigners whose religions and forms of government lack the fidelity of ours, overtaking the people's struggle to forge their own destinies on their own soil, and engorging our irreplaceable military outsourcing contractors (who else could do that job??) and global construction contractors, while closing off construction firms from friendly nations that might compete for those contracts by alienating their governments, violating international principals of respect for sovereignty, due process and international cooperation in the name self-preservation.

Even if the foreign deaths cause by our action top a hundred thousand - perhaps even hundreds of thousands - while some will whine and complain, the world - even the targets of our corrective actions - will remember that they owe us so much, they should be grateful for our "grandfatherly meddling", and not resent our policies of regime change, reference to their governments as illegitimate, and crippling of their capitols, infrastructure, livelihoods and families with military force.

While we may be already a third of a trillion dollars into an unprovoked war, there's no reason to allow our treasury to be plundered by thankless medical researchers. Given the importance of providing tax breaks and shelters for well-heeled corporations and executives that help keep our best and brightest in power, I realize afresh that we simply can't spare any money for wacky wild goose chases such as steming the destructiveness of our most prevalent and debilitating diseases. Poor, poor plebes in the voting public. To think that America is actually capable of harnessing powerful remedies by the sheer mass of its research infrastructure, the world-renowned training of its scientists, and our spirit of discovery, innovation and desire to do good! Oh, we tell our children and our constituents such things, but --- well --- really!

Please forgive my kitschy and humanitarian outburst!

I also realize that it's childish to take the President at his word when he says things such as "I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your President I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world... I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research [only] on these [60] existing stem cell lines, where the life and death decision has already been made."

I'm reminded that the President must appease a part of our society that we know and love and ask to help rear our children, and who help keep our best and brightest in power each election day. Other than not wanting to fund it, the President wishes "no ban" on any form of embryonic stem cell research. Don't you see? Already states are funding these efforts out of their own budgets. But it's not a ban. There are people in the media who can explain this better than I can...

I must have been temporarily insane when I expressed pleasure at Michael J. Fox's advocacy for his cause. He's a simpleton, and for that brief moment, so was I. Whew! I feel so much better - richer, even - for the reminder of these dreadfully important values that are at stake.

Please forgive my lapse.

I'm a liberal who plans to vote mostly democratic and would like nothing more than to sweep both houses and gleefully watch Bush get impeached and stand trial, and leave the presidency in disgrace. And I'm hoping like hell this issue is NOT the one we intend to ride to victory, because it sucks. I'm sorry MJF got dealt a shitty hand; some members of my family have similar health issues. But for me the sanctity of life works at both ends and the middle. People have proven themselves selfish bastards who will do anything to prolong life at the far end...including ending it at the start just to experiment. Not on my watch.