Doyle declared the political fight on stem cell research over in Wisconsin.

"The political battle never slowed down stem cell research in Wisconsin," Doyle declared during his speech at the World Stem Cell Summit at the Alliant Energy Center, according to WisPolitics.com. "The battle in political terms is really over in the state."

We hope Doyle is right.

We also hope the next president and Congress will similarly find common ground to move this exciting research forward faster. That includes lifting President Bush's out-of-date ban on federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cell lines created since 2001.

The good news this election season is that both major candidates for president -- Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain -- have voted to lift Bush's ban.

McCain has had to buck his own party on the issue in the past. Slowly but surely, however, the Republican Party is catching up with McCain, who like Obama understands that using days-old embryos that are slated for destruction at fertility clinics is the ethical and responsible thing to do in the fight against human suffering and disease. Embryonic stem cell research has the potential to improve medical treatments and eventually to find cures.

Wisconsin has a lot at stake on the issue. UW-Madison researcher James Thomson was the first to isolate human embryonic stem cells a decade ago. Scientists believe the blank-slate cells can be guided to grow into replacement cells for diseased tissues.

Madison also is home to the National Stem Cell Bank and a growing number of biotechnology companies.

Stubborn critics of the research have tried to use Thomson's latest breakthrough to slow progress. Thomson last fall reprogrammed adult skin cells to resemble embryonic stem cells, leading some to suggest that research on lines from human embryos is unnecessary.

But Thomson and other scientists last week said the new technique will take years to perfect. In the meantime, embryonic stem cells are the "gold standard" for research.

Doyle and some others at last week's summit worried McCain might flip-flop on the issue to please social conservatives. But that's not happening. In fact, the Annenberg Political Fact Check (Factcheck.org), a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog at the University of Pennsylvania, criticized an Obama radio ad Tuesday for "seriously misstating" McCain's position on the subject.

In other words, stem cell research is not a major issue or difference between the candidates in the presidential race.

Now that's progress.