McCaskill Taking on Talent Draws National Coverage

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The topic may not have the power of those frequently used by Republicans to rally their conservative base, like same-sex marriage and abortion. But it could help Democrats win voters who are pinning their hopes on the science for treatments and cures.

It may also influence voter turnout in some races, including here in Missouri, where a proposed constitutional amendment to protect stem cell research is making front-page news, and the incumbent Republican senator, Jim Talent, is facing a tough re-election challenge from the state auditor, Claire McCaskill, a Democrat.

On Tuesday, Ms. McCaskill appeared in the central Missouri town of Fayette, population 2,793, for a wine-and-cheese reception at an antiques shop and, later, for a dinner of roast beef and potatoes in the brightly lit social hall of St. Joseph's, a Roman Catholic church. A Catholic church is hardly the kind of place where most politicians would talk up embryonic stem cell studies — church leaders are fiercely opposed — but Ms. McCaskill did just that.

"There are people of principle who disagree with this form of research," Ms. McCaskill told her audience. "I respect their principles. But what I don't respect is someone dancing around science for political cover."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/washington/24stem.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1145851200&en=e375db24245a8098&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

Also posted: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=162x5761

[saltpoint]

1. O my but this Claire McCaskill is a terrific candidate and would

make a terrific senator as well.

Is there anybody who would seriously miss Jim Talent?

Go, Claire McCaskill. May she win this Senate seat from the Blue Me State.

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2. MO has been trending red but I think we can take er back.

[MadHound]

3. From where I sit in Missouri

I'm pretty certain that the state is going back to blue. I live in rural Mid Mo, and my neighbors out here are fed up with the neo-cons(and that's saying something, since this is a county that didn't officialy rejoin the union until about ten years ago). They're fed up with the war, the lies, the rise in oil prices, selling off of the Mark Twain National Forest, etc. etc. And with Talent being identified as a strong supporter of this fiasco, his days are numbered.

On a state level, it is virtually impossible to find anybody who supports our current govenor, the Boy Blunder. He has pissed off people right, left and center. He's gone in '08, and now it's only a matter of how big a mess he'll make between now and then.

And the Republican members of our state legislature aren't faring much better in the public mind. They've come in and trashed health care, education, the enviroment, our parks, on and on, and those who are up for re-election in '06 and '08 are running scared.

I'm pretty damn certain that come this fall, and the fall of '08, you are going to once again see Missouri as a bell weather state, and it will clearly be blue.