CNN and Piers Morgan Tonight guest host Donnie Deutsch didn't just cue up Michael J. Fox to attack Rush Limbaugh on Thursday night. They also tossed a whiffle ball named Rick Santorum, who opposes embryo-killing stem-cell research (but not research on adult stem cells that doesn't violate pro-life ethics). To a liberal like Deutsch, Santorum is "very vociferous." Earth to Donnie: And Michael J. Fox is moderate on this issue?
Fox said Santorum is "against science" and "against education" and "all kinds of scientific research" would be shut down by President Santorum if his Dark Ages were allowed to begin. There were no fact checkers in attendance.
DEUTSCH: Let's talk if Rick Santorum wins, which is a real chance, obviously coming off two primary wins. The people are speaking. That party is connecting with him. And if he gets in office, of course, he is very vociferous against stem cell research. He gets in, how does your life get affected?
FOX: Well, I mean, he's spoken out against science. He's spoken out against education. And anyone would say that education is the pursuit of science. So obviously it will be -- it will not be good. But on one hand, I'm kind of hoping he gets the nomination because he will be very vocal on these issues and will set up a stark contrast that people will really see.
Again, I don't want to suppress ideas I don't agree with. I want to -- I want them, all things being equal, again, it was a vote -- things are equal. Those ideas can be met and dealt with. And so if he -- if he tries -- I mean, certainly if he was elected, it would be -- stem cell research would be shut down and all kinds of other things would be shut down, all kinds of scientific research.
I mean, there was -- there was a time when they were going after the science, they were going after stem cell research and other things. Sort of attacking all science. And someone said, "Fruit flies, what are they -- why are we spending money on fruit flies?" And science and fruit flies are a major model for scientific research. They -- many human systems they can be replicated in the model of the fruit fly. So you get people who don't know science, railing about science, and it's dangerous to those who might benefit from it.
Deutsch asked Fox how he felt about President Obama. Fox is much more forgiving. He sounds like a standard Hollywood liberal on Obama, who hasn't been liberal enough, but deserves support:
FOX: I think there's some issues around Gitmo and privacy and some other things like that that I thought -- I thought would be handled by now, just things that can mess around the edges that I thought might have been cleaned up and just from an idealistic point of view.
But I think that -- I think with the economy, he's done reasonably well and we're moving forward. I think I can't know what that mess was. I mean, in a way not being a politician, I kind of make my best bet on who I think has similar ideas as I do and similar sentiments and similar emotions, and similar meanings.
And so I've done that with Obama and then I just kind of look at it and say, OK, that's -- I have to assume he's done the best he can do. And I hope that he can do better. But the alternative doesn't appeal to me. So I would have to -- I'd have to say that he's done a pretty good job.
After all that liberal talk, Deutsch had to try and underline this: "You're always the nicest guy. Actually you were named the second most influential celebrity people to trust." Yes, it's "always the nicest" to lie about Santorum shutting down most scientific research if he won the White House. That's "nice" as defined by CNN.
