Posted on 07/28/2004 5:41:03 AM PDT by Area Freeper
BOSTON - Much to the dismay of the Bush campaign, Nancy Reagan has just said no to appearing at the Republican National Convention next month. GOP strategists had hoped the former First Lady and Hollywood actress would make a cameo appearance onstage after a video tribute to her late husband, particularly after her Bush-bashing son, Ron, agreed to speak at the Democratic convention last night.
In an impassioned defense of stem-cell research, Ron Reagan toned down his rhetoric but still delivered one unmistakable shot that all but invited Americans to vote against President Bush.
"In a few months, we will face a choice," Reagan told delegates in an otherwise apolitical speech with mannerisms and rhetorical flourishes that brought to mind his famous father. "We can choose between the future and the past, between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology."
GOP sources, meanwhile, confirmed his mother will not be at their Aug. 30-Sept. 2 convention - and some speculated her son might be behind the snub.
"I do not expect her at our convention but she knows she is welcome," Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie told reporters here yesterday.
"If all of you might just keep in mind for a moment the year that Mrs. Reagan has had and be a little understanding of that, I think that would be appreciated by the public and, I suspect, by Mrs. Reagan," Gillespie added.
Republican officials refrained from publicly criticizing Nancy Reagan for the no-show. Privately, however, some were upset as well as disappointed by the decision, which has been known to the White House for some time.
"I don't think she could have missed the symbolic significance of her son going to their convention and her not going to ours," a senior GOP official told the Daily News.
Friends of the 83-year-old former First Lady said she is understandably still grieving for her husband, who died June 5 after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.
"My guess is that she reached the point of emotional exhaustion in dealing with the old man's final goodbye," a prominent California Republican source told the Daily News. "But I was a little surprised she's not going to be there."
A downcast senior GOP official confirmed Nancy Reagan had never committed to appearing at the convention, but was nevertheless dubious of the official explanation.
"The 'not feeling up to it' line is bull----," the official said. "Something happened in the last month, and whatever it was was real."
Aides to the former President did not return calls seeking comment. In recent years, Nancy Reagan has curtailed her public schedule, but last week greeted the new aircraft carrier named for her husband when it arrived at its San Diego homeport.
Long before her husband's death, Bush-Cheney and GOP campaign strategists were eager to have her appear at the convention, even though her support for expanding stem-cell medical research using fetal tissue implicitly criticizes Bush's more restrictive approach.
That's the big hoax the dems are trying to perpetrate.
Stem cells aren't expected to help Alzheimer's. They may help diseases like ALS, Parkinson's or MS.
And if you read this link about stem cells and MS, you'll find that it's ADULT stem cells they're using, not embryonic stem cells.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2680411.stm
I'm of the opinion she's always been a closet liberal.....keeping her ideology under wraps because of her adoration for her husband.
It's my fervent hope that Nancy continues gracefully on the American scene without teaming up with her idiot son in some of his weird leftist causes.
Leni
The story tells it like the Bush campaign worked hard to get her to show and was rebuffed. I would be willing to bet that they actually had enough class to know that she was still in mourning, that she would not want to be a counterpoint to Ron Jr., give the impression of gutter fighting in the family, and that she believes that stem cell research is the way to go which runs counter to the President. The combination makes it an awkward situation. I would bet that the Bushies offered her the opportunity and didn't put any expectations or pressure on it.
"Ron should stick with what he knows best. Judging poodles."
Ron Jr. does n ot judge poodles. He just announces those who judge poodles.
But never did like all that Astrology in the White House crap. And you know who's doing that was.
Nor did I appreciate the torpedoing of some solid conservative nominations for White House posts, in favor of placing moderates in there, all done by some of those same, hidden powers.
How about the only "real" Reagan still alive -Michael?
Two can play at this game.
It's altogether conceivable that this woman has had a stroke, has sunk into deep depression or both. Skpeaking becomes impossible under either of those circumstances.
stem cell research is a major issue in people minds.......
It's the last thing on my mind except that I don't like it. It's ghoulish.
Ungrateful. Pathetic. Unacceptable. Think I'm gonna be sick......
Of course, if something unknown and unknowable literally has prevented Nancy from doing this greater health problems, I presume, than those that DID NOT prevent Lady Thatcher from extraordinary actions I'll do an Emily Litella.
Dan
Obviously Nancy doesn't believe that Kerry is as dangerous as we do.
Why would she sit on the sidelines when a brief show of support is all that's being asked? I know she's in mourning, but your country calls on you both when it's convenient and when it's not.
A poodle judge judger ?
Then they need educate themselves on the issue and not listen to Ron Reagan's foolishness...
Origins of the Current Policy
In accordance with the "Dickey Amendment," passed each year since 1995, research involving the destruction of human embryos cannot be funded with taxpayer dollars. This is not Bush's policy; it is the law of the land, passed annually by Congress and signed by both Presidents Clinton and Bush. This law does not ban embryo research, and it does not fund embryo research. It is a policy of public silence.
In 2000, the Clinton administration discovered a loophole that would allow the NIH to provide some federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research without asking Congress to overturn the Dickey amendment. By law, the government could not fund research "in which" embryos were destroyed. But if the destruction itself were funded privately, the government could offer funds for subsequent research on embryonic-stem-cell lines derived from the destroyed embryos. In other words: A researcher could destroy endless numbers of embryos in his private lab, and then use the fruits of such destruction to get public funding. This would not violate the letter of the law, but surely the spirit.
When he took office in 2001, President Bush put implementation of the Clinton guidelines on hold. He wanted a way to support potentially promising research, but he also did not believe the federal government should create an ongoing incentive for the destruction of human embryos. On August 9, 2001, President Bush announced his new guidelines: federal funding for research using stem-cell lines that existed before the announcement, but not for those created after. In this way, federal money would not act as an incentive for destroying human embryos in the future, but stem cells derived from embryos already destroyed in the past could be used with federal money to explore the basic science.
This was the fundamental bargain of the policy: no limits on embryonic-stem-cell research in the private sector (unlike much of the world, which regulates this practice), but no public subsidies to encourage a limitless industry of embryo destruction.
At a May 11 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Aging, for example, Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease expert Peter Rabins and Washington University Alzheimer's researcher John Morris both told the senators that they do not expect embryonic stem cells to play a role in Alzheimer's treatment. Experts on other diseases speak with similar restraint. In the end, the research may bear therapeutic fruit and it may not we cannot know in advance. It may cure some diseases and not others. But by seeming to promise medical salvation without limits, stem-cell advocates risk blurring the difficult ethical questions that surround this new science.
Inflated Promise, Distorted Facts
Though embryonic stem cell research advocates euphemistically refer to the current state of research as an "early stage," the unfortunate reality is the goal of embryonic stem cell therapies is, at this point, more accurately described as a pipe dream. No researcher is anywhere close to significant progress in developing practical embryonic stem cell therapies.
The only thing certain is that the cost of that research will be high. If embryonic stem cell research had real and imminent possibilities, private investors would be pouring capital into research hoping for real and imminent profits. Instead, venture capital firms are contributing to political efforts to get taxpayers to fund research. What the venture capitalists seem to be hoping for is that taxpayer funding of stem cell research will increase the value of their stakes in biotech companies. The venture capitalists can then cash out at a hefty profit, leaving taxpayers holding the bag of fruitless research.
Ron Reagan Wrong on Stem Cells
"Embryonic stem cells are not going to be the source of a cure for Alzheimer's," Dobson told the capacity crowd. "Are you aware that not one human being anywhere in the world is being treated with embryonic stem cells? There is not a single clinical trial going on anywhere in the world, because (embryonic) stem cells in laboratory animals ... create tumors. Nobody will use them."
By comparison, adult stem cells have shown great promise in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, Dobson explained. And they do not require the destruction of embryonic human life, since they can be harvested from such sources as umbilical cord blood and bone marrow.
Seems that Nancy and Ron have gotten so hung up on embryonic stem cells that they have forgotten there are two other sources of stem cells. Too bad they prefer to kill human beings to get stem cells than to use cells from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow.
I saw a couple of researchers interviewed on Fox News a few weeks back. They both sais that, because of the nature of Alzheimer's Disease, stem cell research could not yield a cure for it. I haven't heard that refuted by any other equally qualified individual.
I saw the speech. It didn't strike me as impassioned. Ultra condescending, yes. Impassioned, no.
No, it's not.
It depends --- if she jumps herself into the stem cell debate, she's fair game. Otherwise, if she just goes away then I think people would be more than happy to leave her alone. She needs to cut the apron strings to Ron jr --- if he wants to jump into political debate he's a big boy and should be able to do it without his momma's skirts to hide behind.
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