Nice guys finish last.
And, no, I’m not talking about Akin as the nice guy here.
I’m talking about the republicans, who cannot play in the same field as the democrats when it comes to trying to win.
Win at any cost is why the democrats win elections, and republicans, because they’re trying to keep/gain that “nice guy” image, will continue losing races that should be won, some of them easily.
The democrats would have defended Akin, at any cost, because, to them, winning the senate is the biggest priority, and it wouldn’t matter to them how big an asshole any of their candidates prove to be, as long as he or she wins.
And they did - big time. He was their choice to be the candidate - spending millions to assist him in winning the nomination, and McCaskill and company stood behind him to encourage him to stay in the race.