How Bush Got There

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Instead, it has provided the central predicament of his young presidency. It is an issue that has placed Senate pro-lifers like Orrin Hatch and Strom Thurmond on the side of those who want federal funding, and brought out stars like Mary Tyler Moore and Michael J. Fox to speak on behalf of juvenile diabetics and people with Parkinson's disease, who might benefit from the research. For Bush, the past few weeks provided a supreme opportunity. For a man who has sometimes seemed to lack the gravitas that the presidency demands, the stem-cell debate offered the chance to show that he was thoughtful, earnest, tireless--in short, worthy of holding the title of President of the United States. Bush's prolonged rumination about the right thing to do was not just a time for soul searching. It was a way of signaling that he could engage issues that mattered at a level commensurate with their importance. In the days just before and after his speech, his aides were everywhere to spread the word that Bush had given this question every last ounce of the consideration it deserved. "I think he just really took it seriously," says an Administration official involved in the decision. "He was bombarded from so many sides. I think he just had to sift and sift."

What Bush announced in his televised address last Thursday night was a compromise that was, at least in the short term, wonderfully adroit. By allowing funds for research on the small number of already existing stem-cell lines but denying money for any work with stem cells derived from embryos destroyed in the future, he positioned himself in the narrow political space that allowed him to claim he had not stood in the way of promising medical investigations. At the same time, he could insist that he had kept his promises to the Republican right, which abandoned his father after the elder Bush broke his no-new-taxes pledge. To placate scientists who argue that Bush did not go far enough, he promised "aggressive federal funding of research on umbilical-cord, placenta, adult and animal stem cells, which do not involve the same moral dilemma." The government is already spending $250 million on such research this year.

The White House is hoping that the Bush compromise will deflate moves in Congress to push through legislation that would override his decision. Majorities in both houses support federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells. The Bush compromise might be enough "to head them off at the pass," says Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, an opponent of embryonic stem-cell research. It helped that Bush timed his announcement for the summer recess, when members of Congress are scattered, making it harder for Democrats to offer a speedy, unified alternative.

For the most part, Bush also defused the fury from the right. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops--to whom he initially made his no-funding promise--blasted his decision as "morally unacceptable." Ken Connor, president of the Family Research Council, said that by trying to distance himself from the destruction of the embryos, Bush was like Pontius Pilate, who "washed his hands of the blood" of Christ. But evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell and conservative radio host James Dobson called the compromise one they could live with.