Hotline on Talent

Hotline's editor-in-chief, Chuck Todd, has moved Sen. Jim Talent up two spots to the third most vulnerable seat in his senate race rankings.

He, like everyone else, notes that this is going to be a hotly contested and closely watched race.

A recent poll has Talent leading McCaskill by 4% which sounds like good news for Talent, but there is a 4.5% margin of error and 11% are either unsure or went with a third option. These early polls aren't likely to pick up anything too nuanced this far out. Short of a meltdown on either side, the two should continue to circle each other for a couple months. Could stem cells be that issue for Talent?

As someone pointed out on Political Fix the other day, the poll was taken before Talent announced his "third way" position on the stem cell issue. Talent's positioning probably looked great on the table, but satisfied no one.

The National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru gave Talent the "He's a well-intentioned guy but..." treatment in an article the other day. He says Talent's position not only makes no sense, but hurts both those who want to ban embryonic stem cell research and those in the pro-life community who are trying to find a conscience pleasing middle ground. As Dave noted the other day, the ultimate Republican inside man, Robert Novak (made recently famous for his role in the investigation into who leaked a CIA agents identity, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff is now on trial for lying to the FBI over the matter), sees this as a lose-lose for Talent.