You two are being way over dramatic on the effects of this.
Yes he’s an idiot/poor politician for opening his mouth like this on this topic, and I even agree that replacing him would be a wise move. But the national effect on other races from this will be small, if at all. The big thing is, NOBODY knows who Todd Akin is. Some random politician in Missouri said something stupid and that’s going to change voters minds in Ohio or Wisconsin? Please. The left tried to bash the entire party over the head with dumb things Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell said in 2010 and although those two buried themselves, the GOP still swept to huge wins all over the country.
This might carry some news for a week, but it’ll be buried under the conventions. This is a loser topic to try to be scoring points on when the economy is in shambles, entitlement programs are bankrupt, energy costs are soaring, and a nuclear standoff is looming. Hopefully they can convince him to step down to save Missouri, but this “omg, the damage from this will be enormous and sink the GOP for years” stuff is absurd.
I’m reading about this whole debacle and I can’t believe it. Most Republicans reject what Akin said and want him out. Why didn’t Missourians listen to Palin and go with Sarah Steeleman?
It looks like the media will have a lot of fun this week. Apparently, Ryan co-authored legislation with Akin. This legislation caused a firestorm and narrowed the definition of cases where Medicaid could be used to fund abortions. Ryan and Akin came up with a new term “forcible rape” and the legislation specified that only cases of “forcible rape” would be allowed abortions that were Medicaid funded.
I remember this debate. It did not go well. Ryan co-sponsored this bill with Akin. Am I having a nightmare? The corrupt media will spend weeks on this. The answers aren’t always easy, but they take more than a soundbyte. The media will be lobbing soundbyte grendades at Republicans all week and connecting Ryan with Akin, because of this legislation.
Here goes the media, giving Obama exactly what he wants, more distractions that help him avoid talking about the economy.