Posted on 09/26/2012 9:41:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
St. Louis, Mo. — Yesterday marked the final deadline for Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate race and be replaced by another candidate. Akin marked the occasion by holding a news conference with religious leaders saying he was staying in the race and embarking on a statewide bus tour.
Akin believes voters have processed his absurd comments last month on a Missouri television station that “legitimate rape” rarely resulted in pregnancy and are ready to move on to other issues. The challenge he faces is that a horde of Republican-oriented groups quickly withdrew their financial support from him in an attempt to force him out of the race. While Akin has been able to raise decent amounts of cash from small donors — $850,000 in the last ten days or so — he can’t sustain statewide media buys on that level of support. Democratic senator Claire McCaskill is expected to start bombarding the airwaves with negative ads against Akin now that he is definitely her opponent.
But Akin got some good news yesterday as the Senate Conservatives Fund, a committee led by South Carolina senator Jim DeMint, announced “circumstances have changed” and that it may jump back into the race on Akin’s behalf. In an e-mail to supporters, SCF executive director Matt Hoskins wrote: “The race in Missouri appears to still be winnable.” A key element in SCF’s shift was Akin’s decision to finally embrace the group’s ban on earmarks. The campaign issued a statement saying: “Spending measures that do not go through the normal legislative process and instead are added just prior to a vote and are not germane to the bill to which they are added are clearly earmarks. Todd opposes this practice and has had no such earmarks.”
Rick Tyler, an Akin spokesman, says he is “hopeful” other groups will end their boycott of the race and jump in. Some GOP surrogates are already lending a hand. Newt Gingrich appeared with the candidate on Monday and urged Republicans to stop shunning Akin. He told reporters that such behavior was understandable in the immediate aftermath of Akin’s statements. “For the first 48 hours, fine. Now it’s stupid,” he said.
A number of key GOP players are likely to show up in Missouri or otherwise assist Akin over the next few weeks. They include former senator Rick Santorum, current senator Rand Paul and former congressman J. C. Watts. It’s not that all of them believe Akin can beat Claire McCaskill. But they at least want to be seen as standing with a conservative who has been repudiated by a party establishment that is often unpopular with the GOP grass roots. “Anyone who wants to run for president will be asked by conservatives where they were when Akin was in trouble and needed help to recapture control of the Senate,” Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly told me at her national convention, which was held in St. Louis last weekend.
But many key Republicans groups are still likely to sit out the race, leery of attracting blistering attacks by the media if they cozy up to Akin. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, told ABC News on Sunday that “We’re not going to play in Missouri with Todd Akin. I can tell you that.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee and Crossroads GPS have both vowed not to spend any money to promote an Akin candidacy. “Focus groups found that women were identifying the Republican party with Akin’s comments on rape and that it was dragging down the whole ticket,” Crossroads adviser Karl Rove told me.
So it looks as if we will have a test case for whether or not a conservative Senate candidate can convince voters his lack of support from any establishment groups makes him an appealing populist or if it simply marks him as a political pariah. For conservatives, the worst possible outcome in Missouri will be if Akin indeed picks up support in the coming weeks against an unpopular incumbent but falls just short in the end for lack of financial support.
from what I read earlier ..Akis said himself he was able to win..so I am taking his word for it..
Jim DeMint · 152,522 like this 2 hours ago ·Friends, I just released this joint statement with Rick Santorum on our support for Todd Akin in Missouri. Please share! This seat is critical to winning control of the Senate.
"If Republicans are to win back the Senate and stop President Obama's liberal agenda, we must defeat Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Her support of President Obama's job-killing, big-spending policies are sending our country into an economic abyss. And her passionate support of ObamaCare is ensuring healthcare costs go up while quality of care goes down. Simply put, we cannot afford six more years of Senator McCaskill.
"Todd Akin is a principled conservative who is committed to winning and fighting for freedom in the U.S. Senate. Todd will work to stop reckless spending, stop the out of control debt, repeal the government takeover of healthcare, support our military and defend life at every stage.
"We support Todd Akin and hope freedom-loving Americans in Missouri and around the country will join us so we can save our country from fiscal collapse."
Akin paid no heed to the “party line”, when he made his statements about “legitimate” rape. Regardless of the (debatable, at best) merits of his statement; his actions have potentially harmed other GOP candidates — maybe even Romney. Why should Akin expect the party to help him?
That one statement which he clarified later disqualifies him TOTALLY?
Is that worse than refusing to protect an innocent baby who survived a botched abortion?
Shades of George Allen losing because of one unguarded “Macaca” statement.
We’re such a shallow bunch of voters.
It’s not easy to win against both political parties. LOL The Rinos showed us.
Let's also assume, for the moment, that he was 100% right about the substance of his statement — that women don't get pregnant from forcible rape.
Let's also completely agree that innocent babies should not be killed.
That still leaves the question of political strategy. It's not enough to stand on a soap box and spout off. You need to WIN — and you need to avoid harming other candidates, who are running under the same banner. Akin may win this election — but, there's lots of evidence that he harmed a lot of other GOP candidates. He acted alone, he acted selfishly, and he acted without any concern for a winning political strategy.
If Akin had laid some ground work for his position, then he might have accomplished something. At the very least, he should have given pro-life groups some advance notice of his intentions. They, in turn, could have gotten the message out to supporters. As it was, he just lobbed his grenade over the wall.
Candidates are elected by the State Electorate.
Akin is campaigning in MISSOURI FIRST.
Any help he could give to the rest of the Party
comes after he feels he can beat Claire.
A misstatement by a Candidate should not cause
him from withdrawing, look at some of the out
right statements from the Dems, OH, never mind,
the MEDIA isn’t going to cover them, and we have
posters on this forum to blast him rather than
to get Claire defeated.
GO TODD GO!!!
>That one statement which he clarified later disqualifies him TOTALLY?
Not with Conservative voters but with the mushy middle which we need to beat the rats.
>Is that worse than refusing to protect an innocent baby who survived a botched abortion?
No, but again, it is the iVoters that will refuse to vote GOP with akin shooting his mouth off.
>Shades of George Allen losing because of one unguarded “Macaca” statement.
Except this one is targeted by mushy middle women voters.
>We’re such a shallow bunch of voters.
Not we, the ones that will vote either way depending on the wind. The GOP needs their votes. Most voters don’t see the danger of electing democrats.
If Akin is free to look after his own interests; before helping the rest of the party — then turn about is fair play.
He handed the Dems a gift — playing right into their whole “war on women” theme.
As we start worrying about not winning the Senate, and not doing as well in the congress as planned, and as Romney announces that he doesn't support the party's pro-life platform, and that he won't be against homosexualizing the military, the concern is that Mitt is destroying the GOP, not Akin.
Akin agrees with the platform on abortion, Romney just came out against it and for homosexuals in the military, who is failing to follow the “party line” ?
Please tell me again who said they "Like to fire people" and is known as the original implementor of Obamacare and has a different position on Abortion that the party in which he is running as?
HINT: His nickname isMITTENS
I hope he wins and then watch as the Rove Wing of the Sell out Social expansion Republican Lite Party cry like school girls when he tells the bastards to eat #%#$.
I agree, it’s sick what the GOP Rinos have done to Akin, he was basing his argument on a very sound scientific fact, that pregnancy rarely occurs during rape! The GOP Rinos were fooled by the Democrats and the lamestream media’s bias, so they willingly turned their backs on Akin, if we lose this seat, and we don’t gain control of the Senate, the blame lies squarely on Karl Rove and the GOP elites!
oh crp..i think everyone is pretty much over the big akin scandal now..he needs to run against his apponent ..not the rest of the country
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