Drum writes, “Ramesh Ponnuru says Fox’s charge is “flatly untrue” because — get this — Talent is not actually opposed to every single type of stem cell research in the world and Fox didn’t acknowledge this in his 73-word ad. (Talent is opposed to Missouri’s initiative, though, which is pretty clearly the context of the ad, and until recently he did support S.658, which would have banned some of the most promising advances in embryonic stem cell research.)” Oh please. Fox could have used the word “embryonic” and made it a 74-word ad, or used the word “cloning” and cut the number of words. Fox’s statement, taken literally, is untrue, and it obscures what the controversy is about in order to make Talent look worse. If Drum wants to defend lying because it’s effective, I suppose that’s his prerogative. But he shouldn’t pretend he’s doing anything else.