[paudio]

I'm surprised to see how many so-called conservatives behave like true liberals by engaging in attribution games, and consider anyone who disagree with them a sheep who couldn't think with their own brain. Calls for withdrawal come from every corner of the Republican Party, from liberal corner like Brown and Romney, to conservative figures like Palin, West, and Walker. It is not liberal media who calls for his withdrawal, rather, the conservative media: Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. If anything, it is liberal media (and Akin's early supporter, McCaskill) who want him to stay until Sep 25. Whenever someone points this out, the reaction they got from Akin supporters usually a litany of things those people did (Brown did this, Palin did that, etc, so they're not to be trusted).

Akin shifted the election discourse from the economy into the definition of rape. I understand that some Akin supporters are more than happy to see the election is about abortion, rape, etc., rather than the economy, but that's not what the voters' most immediate priority now.

[Theodore R.]

the economy, but that’s not what the voters’ most immediate priority now.

Howard Baker said practically these same words in 1981, and we got Sandra Day O’Connor a few months later.

[TigersEye]

Calls for withdrawal come from every corner of the Republican Party, from liberal corner like Brown and Romney, to conservative figures like Palin, West, and Walker. It is not liberal media who calls for his withdrawal, rather, the conservative media: Limbaugh, Hannity, etc.

That's a very good description of herd mentality in action. Regardless of their individual views they follow each other in unthinking lockstep.