Wednesday punditry, now with 35% less doubt. Winners will crow, the press will over-react (It's the year of anti-incumbency! No, it isn't! Yes, it is!)... politics as usual, as summer winds down.
NY Times editorial:
In a huge overreach, a federal judge has decided that the legal interpretation that has governed federal support of embryonic stem cell research for more than a decade is invalid. If the ruling stands, it will be a serious blow to medical research...
Although the injunction is temporary, the ruling is ominous because it means that the judge believes the two plaintiffs — scientists who do research on adult stem cells — have a "strong likelihood of success" if this issue proceeds to trial.
ABC News:
The U.S. District Court's freeze on federally funded embryonic stem cell research has sparked a firestorm of controversy as scientists in the field cope with the devastating blow this ruling deals to their work.
Dan Balz:
Results deliver mixed verdict, demonstrating that the ability of establishment candidates to withstand challenges inside parties remains strong but not invincible.
Chris Cillizza with Alaska too close to call:
But the "tea party"-backed Miller was boosted by an endorsement from Murkowski's longtime foe, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), as well as a controversial ballot measure, Proposition 2, that would require doctors to inform parents in order for a teenage girl to undergo an abortion.
The measure appeared to be turning out conservative-leaning voters in record numbers: As of early Wednesday morning, total turnout on Prop 2 exceeded the combined turnout in the Republican and Democratic Senate primaries by more than 10,000 voters, with 55 percent voting in favor and 45 percent opposed.
Susan MacManus, Professor, University of South Florida:
One thing the GOP has to do is to heal the schism within the party, since the vote was pretty split. Scott has to keep Republicans from straying to Alex Sink. The fractures run deep with this kind of attacks, and it really kind of made it a big challenge for the Republican nominee. [If you were a McCollum backer], you might have some trouble with warming up to Rick Scott since he has been so vicious.
Once again, this shows the volatility of politics and that polls can’t predict turnout. We had very bad weather – it was pouring rain in the key parts of the state – and turnout was very, very light. That probably hurt McCollum. Turnout is lower in bad weather in heavily urbanized areas. Turnout is higher in suburban areas regardless of weather.
Tom Curry:
Sometimes forgotten today is the wide support McCain's bill enjoyed in 2006. It passed the Senate 62 to 36, with 22 Republicans (including today's GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell) joining McCain in voting for it.
But the bill languished and died when House GOP leaders decided to emphasize border security and ran the 2006 campaign partly on an anti-amnesty platform.
This year, attentive to an aroused citizenry in his state, McCain has used the tagline "complete the danged fence" and urged that more troops be deployed on the border to keep illegal immigrants out.
Christine Stansell:
Looking back on the adoption of the 19th Amendment 90 years ago Thursday — the largest act of enfranchisement in our history — it can be hard to see what the fuss was about. We’re inclined to assume that the passage of women’s suffrage (even the term is old-fashioned) was inevitable, a change whose time had come. After all, voting is now business as usual for women. And although women are still poorly represented in Congress, there are influential female senators and representatives, and prominent women occupy governors’ and mayors’ offices and legislative seats in every part of the United States.
Progress comes only with effort.
Washington Post:
President Obama's much-maligned economic stimulus package added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from lapsing back into recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
That's great. Where's that second stimulus?