Good catch by Mediaite. The Morning Joe crew, practically echoing the GOP rebranding of Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) as “Senator Uterus,” decided that the Democrats are losing their gender-gap advantage by focusing too much on reproductive rights. But…

Four minutes later: effusive praise for Republican Iowa senatorial candidate Joni Ernst’s pig-shit ad (her second swine-flavored spot of the cycle), which completes the metaphor of her “cleaning up Washington.” The closest the ad comes to an actual policy is Ernst’s promise to “balance the budget,” though the ad conveniently fails to mention she plans to do that by, for instance, shuttering the Department of Education and the EPA.

“I think women really like that first ad,” host Mika Brzezinski said, agreeing with Matt Lewis that Ernst would probably win the seat largely thanks to the two pig ads.

To sum up: ads about actual policies that the GOP passes and implements: bad. Ads not about any actual policies in any sense, but with a poop gimmick: great!

Ernst might be good at castrating hogs, but the real poop on her candidacy is that she’s chickening out on facing newspaper editorial boards. Perhaps afraid they’ll ask about her support of a personhood amendment to the State constitution, she’s reportedly been canceling meetings all over the state. The Des Moines Register, TPM writes, “called Ernst out on her support of a Personhood measure in a blistering editorial on Tuesday.

“Specifically, the editorial criticizes Ernst for saying during the last U.S. Senate debate between her and Representative Bruce Braley (D-IA), that a Personhood amendment to the state Constitution that she supported ‘is simply a statement that I support life.’ ”

“Simply a statement that I support life”: Those are the exact same words Colorado GOP Senate nominee Cory Gardner has been using to muddy over his support of a federal personhood bill. Kyle Clark of KUSA in Denver forcefully called him out for dodging the issue during a debate last week against Senator Udall.