# Obama, more of the same ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 9, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831 "2009-03-09T14:22:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/1 "2009-03-09T14:22:08Z")
Some people may have noticed that I’m not a big Obama fan (I dislike and distrust most politicians and both parties so it’s nothing personal) but this little tidbit I heard on the radio this morning made even me laugh.
On a news segment reporting on Obama finally changing the stem cell research funding thingamabob, for some reason the station decided they needed a clip from a right to life group. Lucky for us here in Colorado (he said sarcastically) we have Focus on the Family and etc. just down I25 a little ways. So the dude they found said something like -
“This is just more of the same. Bush funded stem cell research.”
Yup, Obama is just like Bush… 😕
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### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/2 "2009-03-09T19:19:57Z")
Well, ok then. I guess I’m the only one that finds that amusing.
Maybe it’s my delivery… Focus on the Family walks into a [DEL]bar[/DEL] tea room after the announcement that Pres. Obama is reinstating stem cell research funding. He says to the [DEL]bartender[/DEL] tea room person - “Great, Obama is just like Bush”. The [DEL]bartender[/DEL] tea room person smacks him upside the noggin with an aborted …
Maybe I should keep my day job
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/3 "2009-03-09T19:25:03Z")
Well, to some anti-abortion fanatics, **any** stem cell research is bad. Bush allowed for research using some existing stem cell lines, but that was too much for some, who were bitterly disappointed he didn’t ban that, too.
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### Author:  [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/4 "2009-03-09T19:49:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Well, to some anti-abortion fanatics, **any** stem cell research is bad.
Got any proof of that? Or are you another one who doesn’t know the difference between embryonic stem cell research and adult or other stem cell research? I don’t think there’s anyone who objects to using the latter.
Now, the quote in the OP was pretty bad, but still, I’m getting awfully tired of people not knowing or caring enough to be clear on the subject.
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### Author:  [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/5 "2009-03-09T20:17:00Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#):
>
> Got any proof of that? Or are you another one who doesn’t know the difference between embryonic stem cell research and adult or other stem cell research? I don’t think there’s anyone who objects to using the latter.
> Now, the quote in the OP was pretty bad, but still, I’m getting awfully tired of people not knowing or caring enough to be clear on the subject.
The problem is that those people often don’t know the difference and make blanket statements that it’s all bad. I’ve heard priests rage on about how all stem cell research is evil, not making the differentiation.
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### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/6 "2009-03-09T21:53:06Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#):
>
> Got any proof of that? Or are you another one who doesn’t know the difference between embryonic stem cell research and adult or other stem cell research? I don’t think there’s anyone who objects to using the latter.
> Now, the quote in the OP was pretty bad, but still, I’m getting awfully tired of people not knowing or caring enough to be clear on the subject.
Adult stem cell research is a poor replacement for embryonic research. We don’t really know whether the biochemical pathway leading to transformation is the same in both cases. If you want to know about plenipotent cells, study it from the beginning, not after it has already changed.
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### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/7 "2009-03-09T22:26:46Z")
Obama on socialized medicine is just more of the same. Bush funded Medicare
Obama on … \ is just more of the same.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/8 "2009-03-09T23:05:46Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#):
>
> Got any proof of that? Or are you another one who doesn’t know the difference between embryonic stem cell research and adult or other stem cell research? I don’t think there’s anyone who objects to using the latter.
[Look it up](http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006738) (third paragraph). When Bush banned embryonic stem cell research, he exempted some existing lines of embryonic stem cells. If you were a hard-nosed right-to-lifer, that exemption was unacceptable.
In addition, he never actually banned embryonic stem cell research; he just cut off Federal funding. Again, right-to-lifers wanted this to be made illegal.
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### Author:  [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/9 "2009-03-09T23:06:40Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#):
>
> Got any proof of that? Or are you another one who doesn’t know the difference between embryonic stem cell research and adult or other stem cell research? I don’t think there’s anyone who objects to using the latter.
> Now, the quote in the OP was pretty bad, but still, I’m getting awfully tired of people not knowing or caring enough to be clear on the subject.
Wait, were the lines of stem cells that Bush allowed for research all _not_ embryonic? I ask because it seems odd that they didn’t mention this fact when reporting the Obama changes on the radio. They just said (more or less): “Bush only allowed research on lines started before August 9 2001”.
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### Author:  [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/10 "2009-03-09T23:23:49Z")
Bush was against new embryonic stem cells being used IIRC. There was still federal funding for existing lines. And if IIARC, adult and umbilical cord cells were fair game.
Or am I wrong?
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### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/11 "2009-03-10T00:11:03Z")
> [@duffer](#):
>
> Bush was against new embryonic stem cells being used IIRC. There was still federal funding for existing lines. And if IIARC, adult and umbilical cord cells were fair game.
>
> Or am I wrong?
Bush rather notoriously made up the number of existing stem cell lines out of whole cloth when he made (IIRC) his SOU address. He stated that there were over 60 lines. This was never true. I’ve read that there were actually about 20 or so, almost exclusively derived from affluent whites…not the greatest possible range of genetic diversity. In addition, most of these 20 (or so) lines were deemed worthless for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research.
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### Author:  [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/12 "2009-03-10T00:37:59Z")
> [@Ogre](#):
>
> Adult stem cell research is a poor replacement for embryonic research. We don’t really know whether the biochemical pathway leading to transformation is the same in both cases. If you want to know about plenipotent cells, study it from the beginning, not after it has already changed.
I didn’t say anything about which was better or worse. I only asked about that statement about people who don’t want any of it to go on.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-more-of-the-same/488831/13 "2009-03-11T15:13:57Z")
It wasn’t a State of the Union Address, it was a special broadcast from his Crawford ranch in the summer of 2001. President Bush signed an executive order regarding Federal funding, as he had authority to do; if there were to be ban on all stem-cell research, that would’ve taken an Act of Congress, and Bush knew it would never even get out of committee.