Cruz is still talking on the Senate floor against Obamacare, but it's more presidential stump speech than filibuster. Plus: Obama and Clinton make another health care pitch, and there's election results from Tuesday night in Alabama and Boston. 
NBC News: “He does not like Obamacare, he does not like it anywhere. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor just after 2:41 p.m. on Tuesday, vowing to speak in opposition to the Affordable Care Act until he is ‘no longer able to stand.’ And speak he did, well into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Cruz read Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” as he wished his children goodnight from the Capitol. He professed his love for White Castle burgers and even commended actor Ashton Kutcher for a recent award show speech….After more than 17 hours, there was no sign that the weary Cruz was prepared to stop until the Senate reconvenes later this morning for a vote he cannot stop.”
Politico looks at the growing divide between Cruz and the Texas senior senator, John Cornyn.
USA Today: “If ‘Obamacare’ is so great, President Obama asked Tuesday, why do polls show it is so unpopular? In a nearly hour-long pitch for his signature legislative achievement, Obama and his health care ally, former president Bill Clinton, said that mandated health insurance would improve the economy and torpedo the budget deficit, all for the cost, Obama said, of a monthly cellphone bill. Obama conceded that the health care overhaul remains controversial four years after it was passed. ‘Let’s face it, it’s been a little political, this whole Obamacare thing,’ he said.”
New York Times: “At the United Nations on Tuesday, Mr. Obama drove home the conclusion that he came to after his own party deserted him over a military response to the chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,000 Syrians: The bigger risk for the world in coming years is not that the United States will try to build empires abroad, he argued, but that there will be a price to be paid in chaos and disorder if Americans elect to stay home. To Mr. Obama’s mind, his aides say, his worldview has changed little since he came to office in 2009, after a campaign promising to end a ‘dumb war’ and to renew outreach to America’s adversaries.”
Washington Post: “Democrats are working hard to exploit massive unrest in the Republican Party over the looming government shutdown, which many see as one of their best chances of holding the Senate or even gaining the House in next year’s midterm elections….The key to the Democratic strategy is a belief that a showdown is likely to play out similarly to the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996, which turned public opinion sharply against the Republican majority.”
ALABAMA: Roll Call: “Former state Sen. Bradley Byrne and businessman Dean Young advanced to a runoff in Alabama’s 1st District on Tuesday night, emerging from a crowded GOP special-election primary. Byrne — who lost a GOP primary for governor in Alabama in 2010 — received 33 percent, while Young received 25 percent, with 61 percent of precincts reporting….Republican operatives have described Young as a popular candidate among the more rural parts of the southwestern Alabama district. Young made news this cycle when he told a local TV station that he is, ‘Against homosexuals pretending like they’re married. If you want to have homosexuals pretending like they’re married, then go to the Democrat party.’”
MASSACHUSETTS: Boston Globe: Martin J. Walsh, a state representative who has been a champion of organized labor, will face off with John R. Connolly, a city councilor who promised bold leadership to transform Boston’s public schools, in the November final election for mayor….The winner in the Nov. 5 final election will guide the city into the future, succeeding long-time Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who, after being beset with a series of ailments, decided not to seek a sixth term. The preliminary election set up a return to the city’s tradition of having an Irish-American mayor, which had been broken by the 20-year reign of Menino, an Italian-American.”
MICHIGAN: Detroit News: Gov. Rick Snyder’s re-election campaign is going on the air with his first TV ad more than 13 months before the 2014 election, touting his record of cutting budget deficits and taking credit for Michigan’s economic turnaround. ‘It’s a nerdy job, but someone has to do it,’ Snyder says at the end of the 60-second ad set to air on network and cable television during the next two weeks.”
NEW JERSEY: Newark Star Ledger: “The odds that state Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democratic nominee for governor, will pull off an upset against the popular Republican incumbent, Gov. Chris Christie, are getting ever-slimmer , according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning . The poll of 1,249 likely voters shows Buono trailing Christie by a stunning 34-point gap, 64 percent to 30 percent.”
VIRGINIA: The Washington Post reports that Mitt Romney will hold a fundraiser for Cuccinelli ahead of this evening’s debate in McLean. “The former Massachusetts governor will appear at a lunchtime event at Fleming’s Steakhouse. Cuccinelli’s campaign confirmed the reception but declined to provide details, including the cost to attend.”
Politico has the questions each candidate doesn’t want to have to answer at tonight’s debate.
Also from the Post: “As prominent University of Virginia alumni lobby candidates for Virginia governor to involve the university community in selecting members for the Board of Visitors, a leader of the movement has donated $50,000 to Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for governor. Jeffrey C. Walker, chairman of the U-Va. Council of Foundations, donated $25,000 to the Democratic candidate’s campaign in early March and then another $25,000 in late July, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks political campaign donations.”