Yuval Levin has a fair point here:
[A] legitimate dispute underlies the stem cell debate. But that is not the ground on which the president made his case yesterday. He argued that to deny free rein to stem cell science is to ignore and reject the promise of science as such. In a barely concealed swipe at his predecessor, he pledged that his administration would "make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."
I agree with Obama's position on stem cell research. Indeed I find the contrary position difficult to fathom. But opposition to stem cell research isn't necessarily opposition to science, it's an ideological opposition to that particular application of science. There's a temptation to categorize it with climate change denialism and the many ways the Bush administration overrode scientific research for political ends, but it really isn't the same thing.
--Jonathan Chait