So as I understand it, the problem with human cloning is not the actual act of cloning a human, but the potential for abuse. For example cloning living humans soley to harvest their organs. Now think about this, you wouldn't be taking the organs out of a newborn, but rather raising the child to an adult and then harvesting the organs. Kind of like a people farm.
So even if it didn't get corporatized, what would keep parents from cloning children soley to save themselves or other children? It seems to me that the right to life people would have a great big hairy cow over this.
Now back to the original quotes from Obama. In the first quote ...
"promoting science isn't just about providing resources - it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it's inconvenient - especially when it's inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda - and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology. "
Obama is clearly referring to the Bush Administrations falsification of Global Warming documentation and the science surrounding it. Then of course the second quote is clearly referring to cloning... however, it is also a statement that he is going to open up stem cell research, but wants to reassure all the nutballs out there that just because he approves of stem cell research he believes there is an ethical line.
Personally I believe there is a difference between ethics and political idealogies. Ethics don't neccessarily stem from religion, politics, finance or any seconday agenda, but from a sense of what is right and wrong.
So technically you are correct, he is applying an ideaology to science, don't you believe there has to be some checks and balances in science? For instance how about dropping a nuke on a major metropolitan city just to see what would happen?
As for putting value on human lives... how about dropping a nuke on a penguin population just to see what would happen? Hope the moderator feels better now LOL