Akin Must Go
Listening to Rep. Todd Akin trying to defend himself on Hannity right now — and the bad news is that he’s claiming he going to stay in the race. It’s gruesome: the poor guy still thinks the furor is over his definition of “legitimate rape.” But that’s not it at all.
Akin’s sin is terminal stupidity. To take a very winnable seat in Missouri against a very weak opponent and turn it into not only a tossup but something damaging to the Romney-Ryan campaign as well is a rare feat, but Akin just managed it. To add insult to injury, it happens on the same day that Newsweek hands the Right a major media victory — and along comes the latest avatar of the Stupid Party to change the subject.
This not about “defending our own” — this is about winning. The Right spends far too much time battling the double standard; in this case, explaining why what Akin said isn’t so bad, etc. It’s a total waste of time. Every conservative should put pressure on Akin to step down immediately, remove this distraction and put a strong candidate in the race. Paging Sarah Steelman…
Try to find the Hannity podcast as soon as it’s posted, for a textbook example of how not to do media damage control.
UPDATE: Akin’s bowing to the inevitable – or is he?
Missouri Republican Todd Akin has begun moving toward ending his candidacy after his remarks on rape and abortion provoked a firestorm, a top Republican said.
“Akin is taking concrete steps to withdraw by tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.,” a senior Republican told BuzzFeed, adding that Akin could still change his mind.
But a Republican close to Akin said his position hasn’t changed: He’s still in the race.
Tomorrow afternoon is an important deadline: If he files papers to end his candidacy in Jefferson City tomorrow he can end his candidacy unilaterally; after that, he would have to file an application in court.
Possible Republican replacements, the Republican source said, include three former senators: John Ashcroft, Jim Talent, and Kit Bond.
MORE: Audio of Akin’s interview with Hannity found via Buzzfeed:
Also listening to Hannity and the half-wit Akin. During his rambling idiocy which passes for thought, I sent three email messages to his campaign encouraging him to withdraw.
The problem is that we have too many Gollum politicians, who think that public office is their personal property, their “precious,” which they will never let go of. “We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious!”
I am so glad the Palin / Tea Party candidate of choice in that Primary was Steelman.
Can you imagine the Hay that would be being made right now by MSM and Establishment RINO Republican types had it been him?
Can we get over the “O’Donnell Stain” now?
Sadly, this kind of reminds me of an old commercial – I believe it was about investing? – and had a guy doing trades on the internet at home.
A commercial comes up advertising a movie and has a Pamela Anderson look-alike running around screaming about things being “blowed up” – obviously, it’s a horrible movie.
At that point, the guy immediately starts dumping his stock in the company that made that film.
Kind of an accurate parallel going on here with Akin…..time to dump his stock before it’s too late and move on.
If Todd Akin is a real patriot and has the best interests of the nation at heart, he will withdraw from the race. Republicans NEED to gain control of the Senate and we have a golden opportunity to take a major seat in Missouri. Akin screwed up. Now is the time for him to man up and withdraw for not only the good of the party, but for the good of the country. We can still win this thing. I think it’s about time some of the heavyweights in the Republican party give Akin a call and tell him it’s time to leave.
“I think it’s about time some of the heavyweights in the Republican party give Akin a call and tell him it’s time to leave.”
Let’s hope they are. If they’re not, they’re not doing their job. This could hurt more than just Missouri.
“The punishment ought to be on the rapist, and not in attacking the victim”, is how he ended it after the inarticulate statement. What is wrong in having a prolife candidate instead of a prochoice candidate? The big issues are the economy, jobs, energy, national security. Obama and the DNC already destroyed social issues with Obamacare, executive orders, and not enforcing law.
“What is wrong in having a prolife candidate instead of a prochoice candidate?” Nothing. That is not the issue. It is that he somehow thinks that “legitimate rape” is less likely to result in conception, that he uses a term like “legitimate rape”, that he distinguishes between rape, and somehow has no conception of what the issue entails. The issue is not prolife, it is palpable ignorance of the issue and endless ridicule that will be the defining feature of the race. He has to go.
Agreed. Unlike Whoopie Goldberg, Akin is running for a Senate seat.
By legitimate rape, was he perhaps thinking about a sexual encounter that the woman later cries rape? There are currently 3,332 daily abortions in the United States. The president made a decreed mandate that private insurance must provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, abortifacients, and transgender procedures. Planned Parenthood is in public school from Pre-K through grade 12. Does anyone remember that Claire McCaskill voted for this? When it comes time for rationed services as Obamacare is further implemented and resources dry up, will she support FORCED sterilization or FORCED abortion as is done in China? Who is really attacking women? The DNC progressives.
Akin is as much attacking women as McCaskill. What his disturbing words reveal is a man who thinks a woman who becomes pregnant by rape is lying and wasn’t really raped. That’s the mentality his words revealed, no matter how he tries to excuse those words now. Words like that side with rapists, not with women.
Walsh is right.
He’s an IDIOT!
Do we really want another IDIOT in the Senate?
Don’t we have enough already? We’re plumb overstocked on idiots in the Senate, fer crissakes!
I don’t understand your fury with the term “legitimate rape”
“It is that he somehow thinks that “legitimate rape” is less likely to result in conception, that he uses a term like “legitimate rape”, that he distinguishes between rape, and somehow has no conception of what the issue entails.
The sad fact is Women in this world have in fact called rape when it wasn’t – Duke lacrosse team for an example –
Women seem to get a pass because they call rape and everyone falls over themselves. The fact is women lie just like everyone else.
I myself know of two cases where women got drunk at a party went home with someone, got pregnant, then called rape to save embarrassment.
the new england journal of medicine itself defines the diference between “legitimate rape” and “non-legitimate” rape.
also the new england journal of medicine has an article stating that forced rape quite often does not lead to pregnancies, because of the trama involved.
this may or may not be outdated info, but the facts are that it is published data.
Rape leads to pregnancy 5% of the time.
There is no such thing as “legitimate” rape v. “not legitimate rape”.
That distinction only exists in the mind of disturbed individuals. Like yourself. And Whoopi Goldberg. And Roman Polanski.
A study found that 68 rape victims from the Bosnian/Serbian civil war resulted in 29 pregnancies.
Please define ‘rare’…..
I hope the fool does drop out. Seriously stupid blunder by an apparently stupid man at the worst possible time. He can’t have possibly just dreamed up his odd notions on the spot. He has to have formulated this nonsense over time, which means he’a an idiot.
Maybe it’s time to institute an IQ test for the Senate. Less than 80, and you can’t get in. That would have spared us Joe Biden, Babbs Boxer, Patty Murray, and probably a couple dozen more that I can’t think of right now.
Unfortunately, one does not have to have a low I.Q. to be really stupid.
Stuff like this makes me sick. Where do they find these guys?
He was already a Congressman and should have known better.
We need a candidate school that trains these bozos in how to answer trick questions.
On the positive side you have to admire a good combover.
Akin must stay. He can go on the day any corrupt Democrat goes. Thery can be filmes robbeing a bank, and they never go. I’m thoroughly tired of this stupid, misguided, suicidal, double-standard. We are at war here, and we’re trying to play using the Marquess of Queensbury rules.
Akin stays. Stupidity isn’t a crime. We need the vote.
“Stupidity”…? His words speak a to something far more disturbing and troubling than mere stupidity. This man is not fit for office. Frankly, he’s not fit to be out and about among decent society. I’m glad the GOP as much as told him that by very publicly withdrawing all financial support of his candidacy. He’s a disturbed, sick man and he needs to be shunned by decent people.
I appreciate the point that if he stays in the race, he can make things harder for the GOP as a whole. But what really bothers me is that more people from any side of “the aisle” aren’t screaming louder the point that Rape is Rape, period! This point should be a non-issue in this day & age.
Personally, I am glad he said this in such a public manner. Now there is now *legitimate* way to deny who that man really is & how little he thinks of women. If he runs, I hope the voters in his area make a show of how little they care for him & the type of person he apparently is.
no legitimate, not “now legitimate”
Shouldn’t it be the Democrats who force him out? After all, they elected him: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/08/democrats-spent-1-5-million-to-get-akin-elected-in-primary/
Should he stay or should he go….hmmm. The real question should be: Is there a more qualified candidate to replace him IF he goes? No question the man mis-spoke. “Legitimate rape” was a gaffe of megamoogalous proportions. Whatever he was trying to say is now lost in the monster-mouthpile he dropped. Trying to defend his words is simply causing him to step in his mouth-pile.
I assume Joe Biden can say that God answers prayers. Akin foolish statement has distracted the public and the media from Bidens recent gaffes.
all you judgmental people please read:
http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/492/26/
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/a-canard-that-will-not-die-legitimate-rape-doesnt-cause-pregnancy/261303/
Read this.
Then you can see the unedited version of what tinsmith/gray man/completefreakin’tool wants you to read…
The odd thing is people from his state are still supporting him and want him to be their candidate.
Why is a murderer like Ted Kennedy allowed to stay in the Senate and be honored and respected, and Biden allowed to be stupid all the time and keep his job and yet a Republican candidate lose everything because he said a terrible and ignorant thing, but didn’t kill anyone?
Double standards. Now Palin is suggesting her original candidate for an independent run. A three way race would surely give it to the dem whom no one seems to like.
Why does the left get to keep their jerks as they rally round them and the pravda press helps them out? And our side must fall all over itself showing how noble we are in asking our jerk to exit the race? And the joke is on us because no matter how noble we are, the left press will still put the blame on all of our side.
And wouldn’t it be ironic if this guy could win after all?
So many conundrums, so few serious answers.
So, let me get this straight. Todd Akin was elected in the Republican primaries and is still polling ahead of the hapless McCaskill, but one STUPID comment on conception from rape has made him SO BAD that his apologies and requests for forgiveness are worth spit, and he MUST withdraw for the survival of the republic or be executed by a Republican circular firing squad?
He needs to be taught about how pregnancies occur, but do any of you know how few women get pregnant from rape when compared with the millions who get pregnant overall and have abortions? It is a very small percentage, not because the woman’s body shuts down but just from the actual statistics.
Yet, it is OK for a clown like Joe Biden to be a heartbeat away from being President, it is OK for Dirty Harry Reid to be the Democrat leader in the Senate, it is OK for Prevaricating Princess Pelosi to be the Democrat leader in the House, and it is OK for President Pinocchio Obama to contaminate the White House, all of whom have already practically destroyed the economy, put millions out of work, doubled gas prices, burdened future generations with national debt, and are threatening to double down and finish the job if re-elected?
If you are a so-called “Independent”, what the f*** are you thinking?
There is a dynamic here that non-Missourians don’t know about. Todd Akin won in an upset in the primary. He is the Conservative, while his opponents are of the RINO establishment variety. So, of course the RINO ex-senators come out of the woodwork to condemn him. They want to nullify this election and place one of their own in the senate. We have to ask ourselves if we want moderate, give-in Republicans in the senate, or do we want true conservative, Tea Party Constitutionalists to represent us? We expect the Dems to parse every word and attack based on the double standard that exists. However, don’t be fooled by all the Republican posers coming to the forefront to condemn this man. Steelman and Brunner are the establishment puppets, not real Conservatives. I applaud Todd Akin’s bravery in the face of this stupid, trumped-up issue. In this case, the democrats and the establishment RINOs were on the same side. Think about it.
That’s funny, Steelman was the Tea Party and Sarah Palin endorsed candidate in the primary.
Had no idea that the Tea Party was the Republican establishment….
Depressing. This guy cares only about his political career. And it is going down the toilet whether he withdraws or not. The problem is, he is dooming Missouri to six more years of McCaskill and he could cost us the repeal of Obamacare. He might even cost Romney the White House.
The problem with this guy is not that he’s a moron. The problem is that he is a selfish moron. He’s just as self-absorbed as Obama.
I don’t car if Akin runs or withdraws at this point. The RNC is keeping it stirred up and making it worse, and I think intentionally. So they want to keep him out. They wanted to do that before he opened his mouth. It’s their way of getting total power . These are the same dunces who lost the 2008 election and in typical bureaucratic manner blames a girl. They keep Palin and every conservative out who has been fighting the good fight to save America. They want to hand pick every candidate and kill those that don’t give unconditional, 100% servitude to them.