What We're Reading - August 8
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Good morning, everyone! It was a busy day yesterday with a number of state primaries in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, and Washington. We’ll have more on that later, but in the meantime here’s what we’re reading this morning…
All the single ladies. “Working-class, female voters get campaign wooing” — “Obama is launching a two-day, four-city swing through Colorado on Wednesday. Obama's events are expected to focus on the economy, including his call for Congress to extend tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year while letting the cuts for higher-income earners expire. Obama also planned to emphasize women's health issues during his first event in Denver. The crowd at the Auraria Event Center was expected to be predominantly women. The president was to be introduced by Fluke, the Georgetown University student who gained notoriety after conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called her a slut because of her support for a portion in the president's health care overhaul that requires insurance companies to cover contraception. The president has been running television advertisements in Colorado highlighting his health care overhaul's benefits for women and warning women that those benefits could be taken away if Romney wins. On Wednesday the campaign released a video in which actress Elizabeth Banks describes her personal experience with Planned Parenthood and criticizes Romney for promising to cut off its federal funding.”
The field is set in Missouri. “Republicans in Missouri pick Todd Akin to face Sen. Claire McCaskill in November” — “Republicans on Tuesday pinned their hopes of winning back a Senate seat in Missouri — and perhaps control of the chamber — on Todd Akin, picking the conservative congressman to take on endangered Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November. If the Republican Party is to win the four seats it needs to take the Senate, it will almost certainly need to start by defeating McCaskill, who squeaked into the Senate six years ago in a Democratic wave in a state that has steadily shifted rightward since. In a volatile and heated campaign, the GOP chose Akin to take on McCaskill over former state treasurer Sarah Steelman and wealthy businessman John Brunner. Unlike in other recent key Republican Senate primaries, including races in Texas and Indiana, none of the three candidates were traditional establishment picks, and each had sought to lay claim to the mantle of small government outsider. But in the final days of the race, they had sought to appeal to different splinters of the conservative electorate. Akin received a late surge of support from evangelicals, impressed by his close ties to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and his long-standing support for conservative social causes.”
A burdensome rule in Texas. “Texas doctors object to abortion counseling rule” — “AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas medical groups object to a proposed rule for the state Women's Health Program that would ban abortion counseling, calling it a gag order on doctors. The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday that the Texas Medical Association and other groups say the rule is so burdensome that doctors won't want to participate in the program, regardless of whether they oppose abortion. The Women's Health Program has been embroiled in a debate over Planned Parenthood and its involvement in cancer screening and contraception services. Conservative state leaders have insisted that Planned Parenthood, which had served 40 percent of the 130,000 low-income women enrolled in the family planning services, should be excluded because it has a separate arm that performs abortions. The federal government, which pays about 90 percent of the program's costs, is set to cut that funding later this year because Texas moved to exclude Planned Parenthood from participating. A federal court has tentatively found it is improper to exclude Planned Parenthood from the government program. Gov. Rick Perry has promised that Texas will make up for the loss of federal funds to keep the program going without Planned Parenthood's involvement. Texas is now drafting rules to rework a Women's Health Program that depends heavily on private doctor participation.”
