Campaigning is always at its best and worst the last few weeks before the election, which is no surprise. Often, celebrities like to throw their names in with certain candidates, parties, or issues, and sit back while the praise and criticism rolls in. This should be expected, since everything a person does in the political arena is widely open to criticism. Badmouthing, vitriol, and others angrily stating their conflicting opinions are an occupational hazard when publicly voicing your beliefs. This angry game of politically driven pong goes on many times each day, and the media loves every second of it.

The plot thickens though, when someone with a progressive, debilitating disease goes to campaign for a candidate on a very controversial issue. Michael J. Fox was campaigning for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill in political ads on the issue of embryonic stem cell research. McCaskill has made this issue one of her key points in her quest to unseat Republican Senator Jim Talent, who opposes embryonic stem cell research, and favors using federal funds to using adult stem cells for research.

Last Thursday, Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh criticized Michael J. Fox for his ad, in which Fox had heavy tremors from his Parkinson's disease. Limbaugh said that Fox has likely gone off his medication in order to make his tremors worse for the camera. The backlash happened swiftly thereafter; with many people in media outlets further demonizing Limbaugh for his assumption. Limbaugh said "In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He is moving all around and shaking. And it's purely an act."

Even though Rush has been publicly skewered for his assumption that Fox did not take his medication and was acting to further publicize his tremors for his candidate's political gain, Limbaugh had a reason to believe the way he did. Michael J. Fox has admitted on camera and in his book "Lucky Man" that he would stop taking his medication for public appearances on behalf of Parkinson's disease research. Fox told ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer about going off his medication to give a speech to Congress in 1999 to "show lawmakers what Parkinson's looks like." In his book, he said "Learning to titrate medication so that it kicked in before an appearance or performance, sometimes within minutes of my cue, became a process of continuous tweaking and refining."

In the ad, Fox claims "Unfortunately Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope." Fox is wrong in his attack, however. Talent has voted for using federal funds to support adult stem cell research many times, and only adamantly opposes embryonic stem cell research.

While Fox openly and unabashedly lied to the public about his candidate's opponent, Limbaugh was perfectly entitled to his assumption about Fox dropping his medication for the taping of the advertisement, due to Fox's publicizing his practices of doing so. While Fox feels he is perfectly entitled to make himself seem worse for public appearances, Rush Limbaugh is not allowed to say a word or make an assumption about something that Fox has admitted to doing in the past. The reason Rush was roasted about his comments is because he is a Republican.

The Democratic candidates wish to make it seem that Republicans do not want Michael J. Fox to be able to be cured of the ravages of Parkinson's disease. They want the American people to believe that curing people of these diseases is a partisan issue, and that Republicans want these afflicted with illnesses such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and others to die. Republicans are constantly painted as heartless, unfeeling creatures, and it's simply not true. Finding cures for these conditions is not a partisan issue, but the left is perfectly happy campaigning on the lies that their Republican opponent wants people to die slowly and painfully.

People cry for bipartisan support on quite a few issues, but while Democrats are spreading lies about Republicans being the only thing holding these cures back, there can be no working together on these issues. The left's candidates are exploiting sick people, and using them to further help their agenda of getting their people in office. Merely electing democrats into office will not cure Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, as they would like the public to believe. It would, only if lies cured illnesses.