SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

OPTIMISM IN GEORGIA – FROM POWERLINE:   In the first round of voting in the Georgia Sixth congressional race, Jon Ossoff, boy Democrat, declared that he had won a “victory for the ages.” In reality, he had captured around 48 percent of the vote, short of what he needed for actual victory.  Ossoff’s nearest rival, Karen Handel, ran far behind Ossoff, with only around 20 percent of the vote. However, her count was depressed by the fact that the field was full of Republican candidates. In addition, Ossoff had raised around $8.3 million. Even with those advantages, he still fell short of true victory.  Now, a new poll by WSB-TV, Landmark Communications shows Handel with a slim lead over Ossoff. She’s at 49.1 percent; he’s at 46.5 percent. However, the margin of error is 4 percent. Thus, the race is neck-and-neck.  Democrats, though, must be discouraged to see their young champion at below the number he reached in the first round. And Handel must be delighted that Republican support appears to have coalesced so uniformly behind her.  The election, though, is June 20th, more than a month away.  Dems are portraying Ossoff as their new fair-haired boy, reasonable, able to work with both sides.  From what I see, he's standard-issue Democratic liberal.  I'm sure Handel is hitting that point.

GOOD MOVE, AND NECESSARY – FROM BREITBART:  Iowa on Friday became the latest state to enact a voter-ID law to protect the integrity of its election process, and the state’s elected leaders are already bracing for a legal challenge seeking to invalidate that law before it can go into effect next year.  Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who is the longest-serving governor in the nation, signed the legislation into law on May 5. The bill, House File 516, specifies voter-identification requirements to cast a ballot in elections, shortens the time period for early voting, and updates the state’s absentee-voting procedures.  The legal challenges will come, claiming voter i.d. laws are unfair to minorities.  In fact, every poll shows that minorities support these laws by wide margins.  It's the activists who don't like them.  I'm sure Branstad will stand firm.

FROM SHERLOCK HOLMES TO SIGMUND FREUD – FROM THE NEW YORK POST: A prospective NYPD cadet claims he was rejected for being “too honest” about his anxiety.  Kevin Carumba of the Bronx dreamed of being a New York City cop, but the department disqualified him in 2015 “for having a fair amount of anxiety,” according to court papers Carumba filed to overturn the decision.  “I want to be able to help people, make them feel safe, and not let them live in fear,” Carumba said in the Manhattan Supreme Court filing against the city’s Civil Service Commission, which oversees the process.  But Carumba “was trying to be as honest as possible during his interview and due to a misunderstanding might have exaggerated some events or thoughts that occur rarely,” according to the lawsuit, which insists the rejection “should be reversed.”  A psychologist who examined Carumba after the 2015 rejection said Carumba “is not nearly as anxious as he reported.”   Hire him and assign him to a university to protect the safe spaces.

May 6, 2017