INSTA-PUNDIT

The president’s television demeanor for tonight’s stem-cell address suggests he’s getting worse at these television sit-downs, not better. He did the Bambi thing again; he seemed stiff as a post; the speech was without a single moment of grace or ease. That said, Bush’s decision strikes me as politically smart and ethically defensible. To be honest, I was unaware that the current stem-cell lines can somehow generate an inexhaustible supply of stem-cells, and I’m not even sure I understood what he was saying on this point. But if the only federally-funded research is going to be on existing stem cell lines, then I think he’s made a pretty good call under the circumstances. (I’d rather no federal funding at all, but that was perhaps politically impossible.) The appointment of Leon Kass, arch-opponent of human cloning, to head up the President’s Council on the issue, is also a good sign. The speech was a classic example of the politics of this administration: two steps away from the far-right toward the center. What beats me is why on such an important speech, Bush didn’t get one of his truly talented speech-writers to craft a statement that could truly persuade and engage. Did Karen Hughes write this, as I read today? I’m sorry but she can’t write her way out of a paper bag. You think Reagan would have relied on a bureaucrat to pen such a speech? Where’s Peggy Noonan when you need her?