Posted on 08/31/2006 7:28:56 AM PDT by IrishMike
If you seek this year’s emblematic election, look at Missouri. In this bellwether state, which has voted with the winner in 25 of the last 26 presidential elections, the U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Republican Jim Talent and state auditor Claire McCaskill encompasses today’s political controversies.
Talent, 49, lost a race for governor in 2000 by 21,445 votes, and won two-thirds of a Senate term in 2002 by 21,254 (defeating Sen. Jean Carnahan, who was appointed to the Senate in 2000 when her husband Mel was elected 22 days after dying in a plane crash). So he is running statewide for the third time in six years. In 2002, President Bush made five trips to Missouri on his behalf. This year, Talent, like most Republican candidates, is stressing his independence, but Bush is coming Sept. 8 for a third visit.
McCaskill will carry the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas, which cast 57 percent of Missouri’s votes. To win, however, she must prevent huge Talent majorities in what she calls “Ashcroftland” — rural and very religious areas, especially southwest Missouri, which sent John Ashcroft to the Senate
......................................... Talent, a right-to-life evangelical Christian, removed himself as a sponsor of a Senate bill to ban cloning because he thought it might ban research he considers ethically acceptable. The Missouri Baptist Convention’s newspaper expressed “fire-spittin’ disbelief” that Talent has embraced “pagan ideas” at the behest of “the clone-to-kill movement,” and hence can no longer be considered pro-life. Such invective motivated Danforth, a right-to-life Episcopal priest, to write a book, “Faith and Politics,” due out in mid-September. It deplores the religious right’s power to drive Republican behavior in matters such as stem cells and Congress’ intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.
(Excerpt) Read more at annistonstar.com ...
Ah, yes.
More George Will "Christians are ruining the GOP and America" crap.
A little better disguised this time, though, than he usually does.
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I don't consider George Will a conservative anymore...he's becoming a Libertarian. And there is a vast, vast difference between the two. Conservatism's biggest constituency has been the so-called "religious right". To shun them or push them out of the party, as Will would like to do, would be tantamount to political suicide. But I've discovered (usually by observing Democrats) that there's no shortage of educated idiots in this world.
What will be political suicide is to embrace the "end justifies the means" mindset that they seem to have when it comes to trying to use the federal government to decide issues that should be left to the States.
Support Talent as best you can, whether you find a few of his positions distasteful or not. Staying home in righteous indignation over them is voting to elect McCaskill and is the same as cutting off your nose to spite your face.
One thing should be noted in this race-Saint Louis is at the forefront of genetic research. Two Universities here have received the bulk of grants for it. There are a lot of bio-chem companies as well. I think this is the reason for Talents comments. Wash U is one of the top 10 medical schools in the country and is the leader in stem cell research. Call in vote pandering or whatever, but the bio research bloc in this state is huge..
True
To shun them or push them out of the party, as Will would like to do ...
False. He just wants them to wake up and recognize the REALITY that they have to choose their battles WISELY -- because they will NEVER convert enough of the rest of the country to their views to be able to adopt an "all or nothing" approach except in deep-red territory. And reality WILL rise up and bite them if they insist on what is tantamount to clinging to irrational fantasies about their fellow citizens.
cardinal4 -- verrrry interesting -- thanks for noting that
tacticalogic -- Your handle says it all!
The dickens with Will. Just make sure that as many Christians, conservatives, libertarians , Gopers get out to vote in all these tough races and make the MSM eat dust with their biased polls, hatred for W, and defeatist attitudes in our war against Islamofascism.
ping
Right. I'm going to vote for Talent and then vote for stem cell research to piss off the "religious right" kooks. Might even vote against Akin for congress since he's going to win anyway so maybe next term he might show some interest in issues of importance to people other than fundy christians.
You nailed it.
fyi
And to a dead man at that.
Talent will probably win, he's the incumbant with a boatload of money and McCaskill's got some baggage of her own. But what I find surprising, and somwhat troubling, is that fact that in all his campaign commercials, and he's advertising pretty heavily for this early in the election year, Talent makes his central message his bipartiasanship and ability to work with Democrats. Other than that miserable prescription drug bill he promotes none of the President's policies and doesn't even mention the administration at all. For some reason he's running as a stealth Republican. I don't know how well that's going to work.
Both the far right and far left endorse governmental fascism - the only difference is their "pet causes".
Exactly. While there's no reason for me to vote for a congress-critter, since in my district, it's a forgone conclusion that the dem will win, my vote DOES count towards a decent senate candidate. I can't believe that Cleaver is in congress... I guess there just wasn't enough corruption in local politics any more.
Mark
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