Our friends at the Media Research Center point this out from today’s Today Show:
[7:04am]
Meredith Vieira: “Now let’s head to some of the battleground states that Kelly mentioned. First up, Missouri and a race that could determine whether the Democrats retake control of the Senate. Democrat Claire McCaskill is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Senator Jim Talent and NBC’s Kevin Tibbles is in St. Louis this morning. Kevin good morning to you.”
Kevin Tibbles: “Hey Meredith. Well it is down to the wire here in Missouri. The latest MSNBC/McClatchy poll reports that Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill is just one percentage point ahead of the Republican Senator Jim Talent here in the state and there are also reports this morning for the Center of, for Responsive Politics, rather, that this is the most expensive Senate rate, race in the nation. It all boils down to about $10 per registered voter being spent here.”
Vieira: “You know Kevin we heard a lot about the race after Rush Limbaugh criticized those ads that Michael Fox did supporting stem cell research and the Democratic candidate Claire McCaskill. How much do you think that controversy will play into the voters’ minds today when they go to the polls?”
Tibbles: “It is looking like the stem cell research issue actually could be the one that breaks or makes a candidate in this race. McCaskill is for stem cell research and of course Talent has come out against it. Over the weekend, for example, from the pulpits in many churches here, church leaders were preaching and asking voters to go out and vote no but it is looking in the polls that those who are going to vote for it because they are too very important centers for research and medical research here in Missouri. It is looking that might pass. Now a vote for stem cell research could wind up helping McCaskill, a vote against it and if the Republicans get that vote out, a vote against it could help Talent. So it could be the stem cell research issue that actually tips the balance here.”
Vieira: “It would trump Iraq as the main issue, then.”
Tibbles: “It is looking like the domestic Missouri issue of stem cell research is trumping Iraq, trumping the economy, trumping national security here in Missouri.”
Vieira: “Kevin Tibbles, thank you very much.”
One last time: Jim Talent is not against stem-cell research. George W. Bush is not against stem-cell research. I am not against stem-cell research. I don’t know of anyone who is against stem-cell research. Jim Talent is opposed to government-funding embyronic-stem-cell research — one kind of stem-cell research. And in this case in particular,m he’s against writing cloning into the state constitution. Anyway, it’s not what NBC told you.