I tried...

...I really tried to give this one a fair shake...thinking that well, since Bush vetoed embryonic stem cell funding last time around and he's a lame duck now who's known for his stubborness...maybe his alternative suggestion might be given a try until the next administration will have a slightly more logical approach. Then I read this:

The officials said Mr. Bush wanted the National Institutes of Health to capitalize on recent scientific advances, including a study published this month involving skin cells in mice, that had the potential to sidestep the ethical controversies surrounding embryonic stem cell experiments. The White House has been consulting with scientists in recent weeks on the plan, they said. [...]

But the effort appears largely symbolic — there is no money attached — and some scientists were instantly skeptical.

[spewing coffee, LOL]. So, uhm, he's going to tell us we'll be allowed to work on cells that we're already allowed to work on, except now they'll be filed in the same registry as the embryonic stem cells we're already allowed to work on.

Yes, there's more to it than that: we might be allowed to work on cells derived from embryos that were declared clinically dead. A step in the right direction, I suppose, but possibly more ethically challenging since the in vitro embryos some stem cell lines are derived from in effect never had a chance at survival to begin with, whereas a clinically dead embryo...who's to say it's "dead"?