The day after US President Bush announced a difficult compromise on the matter of federal funding for stem cell research found both conservatives and liberals unhappy with the decision.
A White House spokesman went on television to try to convince the public that the President had deliberated on the issue carefully and in detail for three months.
In his speech, Mr Bush said he would allow federal funding to be used in research into stem cells from human embryos, but would limit that research into cells that had already been extracted from voluntary donors. He would not support the extractions of any additional embryos.
Several stem cell researchers said they were surprised at Mr Bush's assertion that there were more than 60 existing embryonic stem cell lines.
Most scientists said they knew of only a dozen or fewer lines that would meet strict National Institutes of Health guidelines.
Dr John Gearhart, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said he was disappointed that Bush limited funding only to 60 or so lines of existing stem cells. He said it could slow research unless new stem cell lines are drawn from additional embryos.
"This limitation the President has put on this is going to delay, I believe substantially, the progress we need to make to bring these types of therapies to the bedside," Mr Gearhart told NBC's Today show.
"For the first time we are learning that there are 60 lines available and to our knowledge that number . . . was much, much smaller and we are concerned about how did these lines materialise, who has them, where are the scientific reports on them, how good are they?" Mr Gearhart said.
On the other side of the fence, conservatives and some religious leaders found the compromise also unacceptable. Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, said: "He can no longer describe himself as pro-life."
"The trade-off he has announced is morally unacceptable," said a statement from Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The federal government for the first time in history will support research that relies on the destruction of some defenceless human beings for the possible benefit to others."
Democratic senator Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts, said the decision was "a step forward" but did not go far enough in allowing research that could cure fatal diseases.
The decision was Mr Bush's first in six months that did not absolutely please conservatives and the right-wing, who have viewed Mr Bush as a solid ally. Still, observers predicted that this decision was perhaps only a blip on the screen and that conservatives would not abandon Mr Bush.
In addition, Mr Bush had the support of a handful of deeply conservative Republicans, such as Senator Strom Thurmond.
"There's unhappiness, but not outrage," said David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union, speaking to the Washington Post.
Karen Hughes, counsellor to the president, went on CNN and listed all the formal meetings Mr Bush had had since May 8 with of scientists and advocacy groups on both sides of the issue, stressing that the president had considered all the factors in making his decision.