In fact, it could be argued that both idiotic statements contributed to the defeat at the top much more so than the other way around.
How does that explain away losses at the top of the ticket in Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia?
How does that explain away losing senate seats in North Dakota, Montana, Virginia, Florida and Massachusetts?
Romney suppressed turnout, and the turnout was enough to cost the GOP 5 states and 5 senate seats. He doubled down on stupid by feeding conservative Christian candidates (Mourdock and Akin), to the wolves.
I personally know three people who said they were done with Romney when he backstabbed Akin and Mourdock by cutting off their funds. I had been warning that Romney wasn’t our friend, and he proved it better than anything I could have said.