Word: vetoes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stem-cell research, just like the science of it, is turning out to be far more complicated than either side would like you to think. From the press releases, fund-raising appeals and victory cries that were going up in the hours after President George W. Bush used his veto for the first time, it may have looked as though the Democrats had finally found their golden issue--and a social one at that. "With one stroke of his pen," declared Democratic chairman Howard Dean, "President Bush has once again denied hope to millions of Americans and their families...
...issue work, it helps to have a crisis--or, as the gay-marriage issue showed, to manufacture one. As private research continues even without federal funds and Governors like California's Arnold Schwarzenegger rush in to fill the void with state money, voters end up concluding that Bush's veto is not likely to prevent science from going forward in some way. Unlike issues like abortion and gay marriage, the stem-cell debate is seen by few people as one of moral absolutes. While Americans overwhelmingly disagree with Bush's action, they give him credit for having acted on conviction...
...least, stem-cell research hasn't rewritten the electoral equation the way many Democrats had hoped it would. The most telling indicator, as always, is how candidates and interest groups are spending their money. A week after the veto, campaign strategists in both parties said they didn't know of a single state or congressional district where a candidate was running an ad on the issue. Only one independent organization, the liberal Campaign to Defend the Constitution, has run national advertising about it, buying $250,000 worth of ads in the New York Times and an additional $100,000 worth...
...face of it, stem-cell research would seem to have all the makings of a perfect wedge issue. In nearly every poll, voters say they disagree with the President's veto by about a 2-to-1 ratio. Almost half of those surveyed in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last week said that either they or someone in their family suffers from one of the conditions--cancer, Parkinson's disease, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, spinal-cord injuries or heart disease--for which stem-cell research is believed to hold the greatest promise. "There are a lot of things...
TIME criticized Bush's unilateral foreign policy. But your story demonstrated the utter ineffectiveness of multilateral diplomacy by pointing out that "since joining multilateral talks over Iran and North Korea, the U.S. has failed to persuade Russia and China, who wield veto power in the U.N. Security Council, to agree to specific sanctions against either Tehran or Pyongyang." So far, it would seem, multilateral diplomacy is batting zero...