Posted on 10/24/2006 9:43:27 PM PDT by peggybac
As many around the country now know, baseball fans in Missouri got more than they bargained for on Sunday night when an advertisement for senate candidate Claire McCaskill ran during the World Series featuring Hollywood actor and Parkinson’s sufferer Michael J. Fox (video here). In the ad, a trembling Fox said, "As you might know I care deeply about stem cell research." He continued, "In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures."
Well, the rhetoric is heating up in this important state (hat tip to Drudge). Past and present Missouri professional athletes including Kurt Warner (formerly of the St. Louis Rams), current Cardinals' pitcher Jeff Suppan, Royals' first-baseman Mike Sweeney, as well as actress Patricia Heaton have created an advertisement to run during Wednesday’s World Series game (video here). In this one, the aforementioned speak out against Missouri’s Amendment 2, otherwise known as the Stem Cell Initiative.
Opinion added post facto: I am a huge Michael J. Fox fan, and my dad has Parkinson's. As such, I'm all over the map on this issue. However, I don't see this as being a good time for the Democrats to bring this up in a state like Missouri which would appear to not favor abortion or such research. As McCaskill was polling well against Talent, I wonder whether she needed this peculiar hail Mary. This might end up working against her.
I think you mean disinformation.
The simplest I can make it is that people like Fox (and McCaskill and Cardin) are willing to kill a genetically human entity for the vague hope of a cure and that they deliberately deny the difference between adult and umbilical stem cell research, which is proven effective, and embryonic stem cell research, whihc has yet to prove itself effective at anything except killing entities that are of the human species. To kill a fellow human being, however undeveloped, for your personal conveninece is reminiscent of Dr. Mengele.
http://www.michaeljfox.org/news/article.php?id=5
"I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling."
Uhh, just checked Real Clear Politics...Talent is still up by 3. You must have read it backwards.
Anyhow, on some level you are right, and I misread the sentence somehow, I thought it said "Well ahead" as opposed to "Well against". But It's always been a tough state.
BTW, Talent didn't win for Governor, he lost for Governor in 2000 and won for Senator in 2002.
Matter of fact, now that I think about it, this race features the last two people to lose for Governor.
Good news. When I checked it yesterday the Mason Dixon poll that had McCaskill up three was the most recent poll. Apparently a lot of people got turned off by MJF interjecting himself into Senatorial race.
BTW, Talent didn't win for Governor, he lost for Governor in 2000 and won for Senator in 2002.
Yeah I know. I voted for him both times. My point was that he had run statewide two times in four years so its not like he's a political unknown to Missourians. He should be doing better as an incumbant, especially one who had run two recent statewide campaigns.
Yes, and his TV appearance was all staged with him going off his meds for impact. He has done this numerous times.
It was truly sad when Rush had on someone who knows Fox and has spent time with him over the last several years. He said that MJF still gets very good conrtol of his Parkinson's with medication. In fact, he said that it is like night and day between when he is ON his meds and when he is off.
The fact does remain - eventually the meds will not control his symptoms. But for now, they do still work, he just chooses to go off them for emotional impact. He even admitted to going off of them when he went before congress a while back...
And the bills that Fox is campaigning for, and the candidates he is against, are not even about stem cell research (I wonder if he even bothered to read the proposals on the ballot). The actual text of the bill in question (with the title about finding cures and research) actually specifically is about cloning (using the scientific terminology).
MJF is unfortunatley another liberal flunky (despite his first major TV roll as a thumping Republican....even if unflattering).
I love "Life on the Rock" too! It's a great show!
I'm sorry Michael J. Fox suffers with his disease and will pray for him, but his promotion of stem-cell experimentation, cloning, etc. is just plain wrong.
There was another "superstar" who suffered greatly from Parkinson's disease, and this man, instead of promoting experimentation on human beings for "cures", promoted respect and dignity for all people at all stages of life-Pope John Paul the Great. May we look at his incredible life as a true source of strength, truth, and self-sacrifice during this difficult time in our country.
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