Praise the Lord, and…

Praise the Lord, and pass the crystal ball. John Edwards said in a speech, “When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.”

Now compare this to the brouhaha over Cheney’s comments that a Kerry presidency would make us more susceptible to terrorism. Democrats were livid over this, even though Cheney couched his comment in an examination of Kerry’s record and what can be gleaned from his stump speeches about when he plans to do regarding terrorism. Based on that, and what Bush & Cheney have done and plan to do, Mr. Cheney was well within his rights to render his opinion on the subject.

However, he was accused by Democrats of trying to scare people into voting for him. But while his opinion was buttressed by Kerry’s record, this pronouncement by Edwards is pure fantasy and is, in my mind, worse than anything Cheney has said. Edwards is both trying to add an irrational euphoria to his own campaign, based on nothing but his say-so, while scaring folks that, by implication, Bush wants to keep disabled people in their wheelchairs.

While doing this, he has no record whatsoever to point to in order to support his argument. Adult stem cell research has been showing a lot of promise (see posts here and here for just a couple of examples). Embryonic stem cell research, in spite of continued funding (and it is being funded) hasn’t given us anything yet, and 4 years is way too short to go from a standing start to a cure for spinal injuries. But that, of course, doesn’t stop Edwards from messianic promises like this.

UPDATE: Google News just added a link to the comment in context. It doesn’t look any better. It starts out, “We will do stem cell research”. We are doing stem cell research! Is this another triumph of “fake but accurate” campaign promises?

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