OK, one last word of the latest Washington Post/ABC poll. For the first time, the poll asked whether Americans approved of the way Bush is handling the stem-cell research issue.
How badly did the president do on this question? Put it this way: Bush did even worse on stem-cell policy than he did on Social Security — and the public really doesn’t like the way he’s handling Social Security.
In all, only 33% of poll respondents approved of Bush’s take on “federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.” That’s slightly lower than the 34% who like his handling of Social Security.
I realize that the president wouldn’t dare show flexibility on this, but I wonder if the White House realizes the kind of support Bush could generate by Sister Souljah-ing the James Dobson crowd on stem-cells. The president, for the first time in recent memory, could show a compassionate side that values life and puts some distance between his administration and the more radical elements of his base. He’d get an immediate boost in the polls.
Indeed, it’s not that hard to see how Bush could wiggle out of his previous statements and sign the bill cruising through Congress.
For example, he recently said he’d oppose efforts to “create new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life.” Except Castle-DeGette doesn’t create new incentives for anything; it merely uses embryos already created for in vitro fertilization.
Likewise, the White House has also said the president would reject any effort to create human life “for the purpose of destroying it.” Again, Castle-DeGette doesn’t do anything of the kind; it centers on using embryos that otherwise would be discarded — and the bill does not permit embryos to be created specifically for the purpose of medical research.
The president could, with a little rhetorical acrobatics, conclude that the legislation meets his principles and is worth signing. Is this even remotely likely? Of course not, but if Bush looks at these poll results, and decides he wants to do something that’s good policy and good politics, he’ll give this some thought.