Exactly. If Akin steps down there will be no one “rallying” around him. He will just be an also-ran loser, and will be forgotten by the party. Many pro-life groups have rallied to his defense, if he hangs tough, this tempest in a teapot will be over within the next news cycle. If he steps down, there will be a whole other round of news surrounding the new pick... will it be the 2nd place guy, or the 3rd place gal? Another week of distraction and not talking about Obama’s great depression. Akins had it spot on this morning when he clarified his remarks. Repubs are only helping the Dems muddy the water right now...
You really think that?
Name them with links to their statements
As Paltz requested, documentation, please? I'd like to know who in the Right-to-Life community is standing up for Akin so I don't sound like a crazy for saying it's his decision to make instead of joining the “Dump Akin” brigade.
I live in Missouri. I've heard all three of the main Republican candidates speak at various events, including Sarah Steelman at a neighbor's home (there are certain benefits of living in a neighborhood of bankers and lawyers and retired colonels and real estate developers) and have met both Akin and Steelman at several different events in our county. Sarah Steelman was our state senator; I've seen Brunner at some events but don't know him beyond the standard political coverage. But we're now getting pummeled with “all real Republicans want Akin out” rhetoric.
Right now I see nobody outside Free Republic defending Akin and even most people here are mad at him.
52 posted on Mon Aug 20 2012 19:03:29 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by JediJones: “You have to understand the GOP would love to annihilate any and all Christian conservatives from their ranks. They don’t agree with their values and they falsely believe they are a drag on the party’s popularity, because the only people they socialize with are wealthy beltway liberals who think Christians are hicks and rubes, so they think most Americans are like that. The GOP simply can’t purge the Christian conservatives because they would become immensely unpopular with the base. But whenever they see an opening where they think they can get away with destroying one of them on some nonsensical pretense without getting much blowback like they’re doing with Akin, then they will take it. And I’ll be damned before I go along with this undeserved lynching.”
I know that up close and personal in ways I'm not going to discuss publicly on Free Republic or anywhere else that a Google search engine can reach. You are absolutely 100 percent right.
The problem here is not Akin opposing the rape exception, but bringing biological inaccuracies into an extremely explosive and emotional fight.
He's got to know better, and if he doesn't, that's his own problem. Christian conservatives supported Akin for a reason. It wasn't so we could get something that with one slip of his tongue on an obvious issue would blow up the whole Republican agenda on a national basis.
At least we can be glad this happened in August and not two weeks before the election. Akin may be able to survive this, and if he makes it through with Christian conservative funding and no national party support, he'll then make an **EXTREMELY** strong case for what happens when social conservatives accept an apology, move on, and fight for our guy.
But when you're running for political office on the national level, you just can sound like a hillbilly county commissioner. Our local voters got rid of people for similar wild-eyed comments said in front of reporters, and if the stakes weren't so high I'd say that Akin needs to go back to some small town with local reporters doing their jobs and learn when not to say stupid stuff.