The October Surprise - Michael J. Fox

So who is the disgusting one -- Michael J. Fox, shaking and weaving as he pleads for America to support the research that may save his life? Or Rush Limbaugh, shaking and weaving as he mocks Fox's condition?
Republicans can whine all they want about how mean and tricky Michael J. Fox is, but Americans won't buy it.
Americans love underdogs. And they hate bullies.
This has great potential, I think, to turn into Schiavo Part Deux for the Republicans.
And it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.
Remember how the Republicans all rushed back to Washington to generate some good publicity for themselves by "saving" Terri Schiavo from her husband and the legal system -- only to find that they came across as craven opportunists pandering to religious extremists.
So CBS news anchor Katie Couric decided she would try to help out her friend Rush today by trying to do a "hard hitting" Press the Meat-style interview with Michael J. Fox -- and she came across as a cold-hearted bitch pandering to religious extremists.
Digby is really pissed off at the smear attempts. He gives us the story that America will support:

The guy is so clearly trying to do something good here. It just kills me that these heartless bastards are attacking him and saying that it's tasteless or manipulative for him to be an activist for a disease that's killing him.
Actors are vain people. It cannot be easy for him to expose himself in public knowing that when the public sees him in this condition they are uncomfortable and pitying. He is rich enough to live out his days in in comfortable privacy, getting the best of care and giving money for the cause. But he's put together a very serious and productive foundation that has funded 70 million dollars in Parkinson's research and he works constantly on the issue.. . . Stem cell research has the support of the vast majority of this country of all political persuasions but it's being held hostage by the same minority group of religious extremists who staged that sideshow over Terry Schiavo. There you had a woman with no brain and no hope who the extremists were willing to go to the ends of the earth to "save." Here we have a 45 year old man who is fully funtional intellectually but whose body is beginning to fail him because of a terrible disease and they are rudely dismissing him as a fake and saying that his life is no more important than a smear in a petrie dish.

Fox was authoritative, passionate, articulate and sensible. I hope he does lots and lots of interviews over the whole next week -- reminding voters every day who vetoed stem cell research and why, and how the Congress can pass a veto-proof bill if enough Democrats are elected.
So thanks to Rush Limbaugh's ugly smear attempt, Michael Fox's one little ad in one race will haunt the Republicans just like Terri Shiavo did.
Go, Michael, go!