WHO WILL BE THE PARTY OF UBER:

The conflicts over the so-called “gig economy” aren’t just about Uber or AirBnB or any one company, but about a whole new kind of economy focused around freelancing and service jobs. This economy is already coming, and, as it does, 21st-century trends are colliding with 20th-century institutions. Established business interests naturally have a stake in maintaing the status quo, and they have the political power to influence regulators and politicians. Thus Democrats and Republicans alike will be pushed by existing companies to limit the growth of the gig economy, and we can expect both parties sometimes to yield to that pressure and sometimes not to, as competing forces shake out.

But political parties that understand the wider issues at stake here can indeed make headway with a younger electorate that is at home in the new economy and protective of the benefits it brings. That goes for either party, but, contra the editorial, making that pitch is a more natural fit for the Republicans than the Democrats. On both this issue and on school choice, millennials appear naturally friendly to the policy of “more options and less regulation”, and the GOP is the party that more vocally preaches that laissez-faire message. Democrats trying to shore up life-long blue employment by coming down on the gig economy will find themselves working against the interests of two core constituencies—young people and ethnic minorities—who are increasingly embracing it and the opportunities it offers. It’s true, as the editorial argues, that there is no simple line between liking Uber and voting for a Republican candidate; there are not likely to be many single issue AirBnB voters. But young people who enjoy the service economy and the options it offers are apt to be friendlier towards laissez-faire rhetoric and policy than they would have been if they had never encountered these new services, and the GOP naturally stands to gain in the long run from that kind of shift.

For Republicans to reap the full rewards of backing the gig economy, however, they have to do more than just cheer deregulation; they also need a positive vision for what a social system of support looks like for workers.

Freedom. Just remember, Uber and AirBnB create new capitalists.

THEN CHUCK SCHUMER CAME OUT AGAINST THE DEAL, WHICH MAKES THIS AWKWARD: Obama doubles down on his comparison between Iranian hardliners and Republicans who oppose his Iran deal. Will anyone in the press ask Obama if he thinks Chuck Schumer is comparable to an Iranian hardliner?

This is bush league stuff. They may still pull this out, but it’s beginning to look like Obama’s Syria debacle. Will Putin provide him a figleaf again?

Related: Obama To Jews: If This Deal Fails, I’ll Blame You. Blame the Jews for his own incompetence? Now that sounds like something an Iranian hardliner might do. . .

MOE LANE: I will miss Jon Stewart, actually. He was a great coal mine canary. “If a scandal freaked him out, then you knew that the Democrats were in full Panic Mode over it.”

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Nullifying juries more interested in justice than some prosecutors: The fact that jurors can let the guilty go free was intended to protect us from unjust laws. And if “prosecutorial discretion” is okay, then juries should have the same authority.

I WONDER IF THE WHITE HOUSE WROTE IT FOR HIM? Jon Stewart concludes with rant on “bullshit.”

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Investors’ Business Daily: Jailtime For IRS Political Hacks.

Using legal technicalities to silence and repress political dissent under the color of the nation’s most feared enforcement agency isn’t mismanagement. It’s a crime.

It’s incompatible with democracy and it shatters public confidence in the rule of law. It’s the very crime the State Department is now condemning in Venezuela: the use of legal technicalities to halt popular opposition candidates from running for office. Until now, this kind of activity has had no precedent in our country, and it must be stopped before it becomes the standard. . . .

Lerner herself called Tea Party members “crazies” and spewed other anti-GOP insults in her emails.

To say that the IRS didn’t have an interest in repressing dissent and was just unwittingly incompetent is ridiculous. IRS bureaucrats saw an illicit advantage for their Democrat friends — and wrongly took it.

That’s illegal, and it demands a strong response from the law if the agency ever expects to recover public confidence. If it doesn’t care enough about that, well, then what difference is there between the U.S. and a lawless banana republic?

As always, if the legal system fails to remedy abuse, people may pursue extralegal remedies. That’s not a good thing for a country, but once the law looks like a tool of oppression rather than justice, it loses its hold.

OUCH: “By the end of these debates all 17 R candidates will have answered more questions in a day than Hillary has answered in 6 months.” (Bumped).

ASHE SCHOW: Democrats tweet sexist attack on Carly Fiorina.

For those who weren’t watching the debate, Fiorina wore a pink suit. Of all the disbelief GIFs the Democrats could have chosen, they chose one of a small blonde girl in a pink jacket?

Had this been a tweet from the Republicans about Hillary Clinton, the phrase “war on women” certainly would have been attached. It should be no difference for the Democrats.

While the Left wants to claim that every criticism or slight from a Republican is rooted in sexism, their own Twitter account compares a female Republican to a little girl. Maybe they should look in the mirror the next time they accuse a Republican of being sexist.

If it weren’t for double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

SO, AFTER AN HOUR, HERE ARE THE RESULTS FOR THE INSTAPUNDIT READERS POST-DEBATE POLL:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Gloomy Poll of College Officers.

Jane Wellman, who is no alarmist, and whose work with the Delta Cost Project is very highly regarded, thinks that colleges and universities are by and large flailing. Wellman, now with the College Futures Foundation says, “all of the signals are that this is a sector that is in trouble. Yet the kind of things that would better position institutions for the long haul probably aren’t happening.”

Indeed, the survey indicates that the primary strategy colleges and universities are following is to try to increase enrollment. That’s understandable, since increasing enrollment and revenue is necessary for some institutions even to run in place, let alone improve. But in a field in which prospective students who are willing and able to pay are increasingly scarce, only so many colleges and universities can win at that game.

Hey, who could have seen this coming?

OF COURSE, WHEN DEMS CONTROLLED THE SENATE OVER THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, THEY DID NOTHING ABOUT THIS: Senate Democrats Call for Higher Wages for Capitol Food Workers.

TRUMP: MEGYN KELLY’S SEXISM QUESTION ‘WAS NOT A VERY NICE QUESTION:’ With a petulant response like that to a TV journalist, you know that The Donald is clearly “Ready for Hillary.”

One way or another.

DRIP: Judge asked to seize USB flash drive containing Hillary Clinton’s email.

TRUMP ALTERS THE WAY THE REST OF THE FIELD IS PERCEIVED: “He makes everyone else look boring; he also makes everyone else look responsible, polite and grown-up,” Jim Geraghty wrote last night.

As some were suggesting before the debate, this would have been the perfect opportunity from Trump to surprise everyone and after weeks of bomb-throwing, play the grown-up himself, full of well thought-out ideas on how he would govern; but for better or worse, once again, the real Trump was behind the podium.

YOU’D HAVE THOUGHT ME A CONSPIRACY THEORIST: “If I told you in 2008 that Barack Obama’s administration would… Well, here we are and all those things have happened.”

Read the whole thing.

POST-DEBATE, A REPEAT INSTA-POLL:

Let’s see how your minds were changed, if they were. Previous poll results here.

ROGER SIMON: CARLY RULES THE FOX NEWS NIGHT.“Fiorina decimated MSNBC’s Chris Matthews,” Roger writes with video at link, and was so good “her ghost hung over the second debate.”

I wonder how the Media Matters/JournoList gang and similar Democrat operatives with bylines will coordinate her inevitable Palinization?

SURE, I LIKE DARK COMEDY: The GDP’s hilarious (false) numbers.

STILL TIMED WRONG: Traffic light’s 101st anniversary celebrated.

IT’S HARD OUT THERE FOR A PIMP TAXER: Mike Huckabee to be remembered for ‘pimp tax’ proposal during GOP debate.

It’s also likely a thinly-veiled insult directed towards America’s first black president.

WAR IS NOT PEACE: Iran’s already at war with us — it helped kill my dad.

GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE LOSER? FOX NEWS: I was particularly disappointed with the ridiculous “gotcha!” questions posed by Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace. Can Fox News please focus on the issues and not try to play favorites?

After this debate, my opinion changed the MOST about @foxnews, @megynkelly, @BretBaier & Chris Wallace! Utterly Disappointed…#GOPDebate

— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) August 7, 2015

Uhhh..@brithume most of us didn’t like @megynkelly questioning of everyone..very ungentlewomenly! #GOPDebate

— Janie Johnson (@jjauthor) August 7, 2015

The biggest losers in the debate were the Fox moderators who attacked instead of moderating #GOPDebate

— Ed Wrather (@edwrather) August 7, 2015

ANOTHER DEBATE LIVEBLOG. I do like Trump’s Rosie O’Donnell line.

WELL, THIS IS NEWS: Chuck Schumer to reject Obama’s Iran deal.

Chuck Schumer has finally made the decision to reject support for President Obama’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran after the senator spent weeks dithering on the explosive issue, it was revealed on Thursday.

The top-ranking Democrat in the Senate released a statement late on Thursday that said after “considerable soul-searching” Schumer found that there are “serious weaknesses” in the nuclear accord.

“I will vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy,” Schumer wrote.

“It is because I believe Iran will not change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power.”

The Senator has been under pressure from opponents of the Iran nuclear accord — including his own Jewish allies — and will deal a serious blow to the president, who needs the support of 34 Democratic senators to sustain a veto.

This is starting to look like Obama’s Syria effort all over again.