McCain Camp Says Biden Is "Playing Politics" on Stem Cell Research

By: Ryan Corsaro
Topics: Joe Biden

(CBS)

From CBS News' Ryan Corsaro:

(ST. LOUIS, MO.) - John McCain's campaign expressed outrage over comments made by Joe Biden, who used disabled children as an example to criticize Republicans who do not support stem cell research.

McCain spokesman Ben Porritt took the attack as being directed at GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who has a child with Down syndrome.

"Barack Obama's running mate sunk to a new low today launching an offensive debate over who cares more about special needs children," wrote Porritt in a statement. "Playing politics with this issue is disturbing and indicative of a desperate campaign."

Biden made the comment at a town hall style meeting in Columbia, Mo., today, saying, "I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy, because there's joy to it as well, the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect. Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don't you support stem cell research?"

The line received a standing ovation from the crowd of several hundred.

The Obama campaign denied the statement was directed at Palin, saying Biden was pointing out that between the McCain-Palin ticket and Bush Administration there was "not a dime's worth of a difference" on stem cell research.

In a statement to reporters, Biden's press secretary, David Wade, wrote "Long story short: couldn't be farther from being a comment about Gov. Palin."

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by notbymight September 11, 2008 4:11 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by notbymight September 11, 2008 3:35 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by notbymight September 11, 2008 3:31 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by notbymight September 11, 2008 3:31 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by notbymight September 11, 2008 3:24 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by notbymight September 11, 2008 3:18 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by notbymight September 11, 2008 3:16 AM EDT: You can expect politicians to try to spin things, but the "objective" media shouldn''t be doing the same. For the past several years, ALL of the media has engaged in the dishonest tactic of deliberately not distinguishing what type of stem cell research is being discussed. They all know better, they know the differences very well, but they don''t mind leaving the public confused to score some political points. They should never get away with letting Biden or Democrats declare pro-lifers to be "against stem cell research" without setting the record straight. "60 Minutes" itself did that during a story on McCain - claiming he differed from many Republicans for being "for stem cell research" - much earlier in the election cycle. Liberal elites claim to be all for science and education - as we can''t even doubt in a science environment that we, all life and this entire universe aren''t just the product of happy chance - yet they consistently and obviously very deliberately fail to educate the public on a very simple part of this debate because it helps Democrats not to do so.; Reply to this comment


by think4myself September 11, 2008 1:03 AM EDT: This coming from the same Biden who the same day asked a MO State Senator who was visibly wheelchair bound to "stand up and let the people see you"? Oops, Uh, there''s a ticket to vote for.; Reply to this comment


by wizinit2 September 10, 2008 8:11 PM EDT: McCain is now playing pure politics with Down Syndrome. See the latest on Senate Bill 1810 at http://www.onemillionstrong.us/showDiary.do?diaryId=1377. Where was he and the other GOP Senators when this bill came up in July? Blocking a vote, that''s where.; Reply to this comment


by pthrelf1 September 10, 2008 12:51 PM EDT: The Machiavellian tactics being utilized by McCain''s campaign are really very impressive. I mean, it''s clear (*sarcasm) that having a special needs kid give you the corner on the market for caring about special needs kids- and Joe Biden is a mean person who wants to take jabs at Palin- who is an innocent victim and hasn''t said an unkind word about anybody.

C''mon people- I believe that this kind of *** sells to the bumper sticker voters- but for those of you who use computers and can form complete sentances... have you no shame?; Reply to this comment