Free Republic

He’s in a money crunch:Todd Akin’s TV ads are, reportedly, being yanked from stations across the state because his campaign isn’t paying the bills. KOMU-TV in Columbia says it received half of the payment for an ad buy, and when it didn’t get the other half, it cancelled the rest of the ads. The station says its confirmed that other stations from St. Louis to Kansas City have been put in the same position. McCaskill, meanwhile, is running positive ads about how moderate she is. I imagine the tone of the race will change markedly if Akin stays in past...

Newt Gingrich on Thursday came to Todd Akin’s defense, calling the embattled Missouri Senate candidate “honorable” and “sincere.” Speaking to POLITICO’s Mike Allen at the Playbook Afternoon Snack event here, the former House speaker said the controversy surrounding Akin’s recent “legitimate rape” comments was a “good example of why the power structure in Washington sometimes ought to take a deep breath.” “Todd Akin made a mistake. He’s an honorable guy, he’s a sincere guy. He said something stupid. There was a firestorm,” Gingrich said.

WASHINGTON, DC, August 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A poll of likely Missouri general election voters released this morning shows that, far from being out of the race, embattled Senate candidate Todd Akin has regained his lead over Senator Claire McCaskill by a 45% to 42% margin, with 13% undecided. The survey conducted by Wenzel Strategies commissioned by Family Research Council Action also shows Akin leading by 10 points among independent voters. “Despite the firestorm of news in the Senate race over the past few weeks, most voters have already made up their mind in the race, the survey shows,” said...

Todd Akin WASHINGTON, DC, August 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A poll of likely Missouri general election voters released this morning shows that, far from being out of the race, embattled Senate candidate Todd Akin has regained his lead over Senator Claire McCaskill by a 45% to 42% margin, with 13% undecided. The survey conducted by Wenzel Strategies commissioned by Family Research Council Action also shows Akin leading by 10 points among independent voters. “Despite the firestorm of news in the Senate race over the past few weeks, most voters have already made up their mind in the race, the survey...

Exclusive: Jane M. Orient, M.D., says political demagoguery is replacing science “From what I understand from doctors, that’s (conception as a result of rape) really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” – Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo. All decent people, including U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, agree that forcible rape is a heinous crime. Almost all would...

TAMPA, Fla. – Republican leaders may want to turn the page on Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about women and rape, but Democrats won't let them. Phone calls started Monday in 20 congressional districts held by the GOP, linking the incumbent lawmaker to the six-term Missourian’s suggestion that pregnancy “rarely” results from “legitimate rape.” Akin is running for Senate, in a close race against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill

A new poll shows that support for Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) Senate candidacy has sharply declined since he remarked in an interview broadcast Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy. Akin now trails Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) 50 percent to 41 percent in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/News 4 poll, which showed him leading the Democrat by 5 points in late July...

Support for Republican Todd Akin’s decision to stay in the Missouri Senate race has cratered and so has his favorability. Those findings come from two new polls conducted after Akin created a firestorm with his comment about “legitimate rape.” Republicans, by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin, think he should drop out of the Senate contest against Democrat Claire McCaskill, and self-described Akin supporters believe the same by 50 percent to 34 percent, according to a Mason-Dixon survey. Only Democrats, sensing he’s likely to lose, want him to remain a candidate, 47 percent to 37 percent. And in a...

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the GOP establishment aren't the only ones who want Rep. Todd Akin out of the Missouri Senate race due to his controversial "legitimate rape" comments. A Missouri poll shows that even his best supporters, by a whopping 17 points, want him to drop out. Only Democrats want him to stay in the race. According to a new St. Louis Post-Dispatch/News 4 poll, self-described Akin supporters want him to quit by a 50-34 margin. His image in the new poll is abysmal, with just 17 percent viewing him favorably and 56 unfavorably. And the bottom line...

The most remarkable stat in the poll may be this from the crosstabs: even voters who say they are supporting Akin think he should withdraw by a 16-point margin, 50 percent to 34 percent. That suggests there's a floor for a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, but that conservatives in the state would rather have a different option in the race

Who is responsible for Todd Akin's words on abortion, Todd Akin or the GOPe?

"I think he's been a great leader but I don't want my daughter near him." McCaskill said this a few years ago while in a hotly contested senate race against Republican Jim Talent. In light of the recent discussion on rape, does the Senator feel the same way today, and will she be in attendance cheering on an accused rapist at the DNC?

Claire McCaskill is doing cartwheels.

The other day I received an e-mail from the suddenly famous Sandra Fluke under the simple heading "Legitimate rape." Presuming that the message was not exactly personal, I deleted it, but I could have guessed its tone and tenor. Indeed, I had heard more about Rep. Todd Akin's unfortunate choice of words on the subject of rape in the last few days than I had heard about the actual commission of rape in the last decade, including rapes and other sexual abuses by members of a certain political party. Mimi Alford's recent book, Once Upon An Affair, details a few...

ST CHARLES, Missouri (Reuters) - Missouri conservatives say they are rallying around U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin despite his controversial comments about rape because they are outraged that "establishment" Republican Party leaders tried to railroad him out of the race. A backlash has set in here in Akin's suburban St. Louis congressional district, where supporters said the national party had no right to attempt to force out a duly-elected candidate. Backers described Akin as the "real deal," a politician fiercely committed to their social causes such as opposition to abortion, and to the Tea Party drive to downsize government.

ST. ROBERT, Mo.—Claire McCaskill began a sparsely attended campaign event here Thursday with this quip: "I don't know if you noticed, but my campaign has been really boring lately." The ironic line was one of the few references the Democratic senator made to the political firestorm that erupted after her opponent, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, used the term "legitimate rape" during a TV interview Sunday. Rather than beat Mr. Akin over the head, Ms. McCaskill appears to have decided to let the wrecking ball he set in motion swing all by itself. And unlike the Republican establishment, which has called...

Could Missouri Republican Ann Wagner be the answer that GOP'ers are looking for? Although the first deadline passed for embattled Congressman Todd Akin, Missouri Republican, to withdraw from his U.S. Senate race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, without a court order and a fine, grassroots and Washington D.C. establishment conservatives I have spoken to are beginning to rally behind Ann Wagner. She is currently running for Mr. Akin's 2nd Congressional district seat and is said to have supporters asking her to run against McCaskill should Akin leave the Missouri Senate race before the next September deadline passes. According...

Rasmussen poll made me laugh out loud. If anyone believes that, I just turned 29. Sneaky stuff. bit.ly/SscVZf— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) August 23, 2012Oh, good grief. Sneaky, heal thyself. Senator McCaskill’s attempt at reverse psychology is incredibly lame; is she trying for yet another terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day? What Rasmussen poll is the Democrat Missouri senator trying, and failing, to discredit? Oh, only the one that has her now up by ten over Rep. Akin. In her desperate attempt to bitterly cling to her senate seat, she is trying a pitiful Jedi Mind Trick: “You’re fine, Akin....

What a difference one TV interview can make. Embattled Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill has now jumped to a 10-point lead over her Republican challenger, Congressman Todd Akin, in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race. Most Missouri Republicans want Akin to quit the race while most Missouri Democrats want him to stay. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Show Me State finds McCaskill earning 48% support to Akin’s 38%. Nine percent (9%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Exclusive: Janet Porter joins pro-life leaders as they stand with Rep. Todd Akin Want to know why the Republican Party is in such trouble? I believe it comes down to one word: courage. When Democrats misspeak, we make them vice president. When Republicans misspeak, Republicans are the first in line to throw them under the bus. When Rep. Todd Akin stood for protecting all innocent human life in a recent interview, he used a word with more than one meaning. He used the word “legitimate” before the word “rape” to mean “real,” “forcible,” a tragic event that “really took place.”...