We also have at least one Freeper, Diamond, who is a member of Akin’s local church.
Akin has a long history of being a conservative evangelical Republican, and he has been attacked many times by GOP-e people as an example of the sort of conservative they want to marginalize or eliminate.
I expect that from GOP-e people. I am sick and tired of listening to Akin being cited on Free Republic in the same category.
Akin said something really, really stupid. I'm not going to defend it. Any evangelical in politics knows he's going to get the “abortion in case of rape” question. There is simply no excuse for him not getting his chosen answer to that question evaluated in advance by solid political advisers in the pro-life movement with current medical knowledge since his chosen answer was based on medical advice.
What makes it even worse is that because Akin is a longtime student of military history, he **CERTAINLY** knows about the large numbers of pregnancies resulting from wartime rapes. Look at what the Russians did to German women (and others) and you'll have positive proof that Akin was factually wrong about the trauma of rape resulting in failure to implant and therefore failed pregnancies. At most, an argument could be made that the percentage of pregnancies from rape is less than from consensual sex, and I don't think even that can be backed up from current empirical medical evidence, though apparently Akin based his views on old medical opinions that were once held more commonly than they are today.
But the simple fact of the matter is that all this needed to come out in the primary, not a few weeks after the primary.
Why wasn't Akin grilled on his views about abortion? I don't know. But the result is that because neither of the two other serious Republicans running in the Missouri senatorial primary pushed the pro-life issue, perhaps because everybody knew Akin has solid pro-life credentials and has had them for decades, we ended up with a disaster.
The proper solution under these circumstances, once it became clear that Akin would not withdraw, was to back him or at least back off and not attack him, saying, “Missouri voters have made their decision; we totally disagree with his stupid statement but that's now between Akin and the voters.” (And let's not forget that Akin himself disagreed with his own statement once he realized it was based on grossly outdated decades old medical advice.)
What the Republican establishment did instead was to viciously attack Akin in the hope that more moderate Republicans wouldn't be destroyed by Akin’s stupid comment.
What happened? Akin lost, and most of the moderate Republicans lost, too.
So we got the worst of both worlds.
I understand why GOP-e types will attack Akin. That makes sense, and is quite consistent. But somebody needs to explain to me how attacking Akin in 2014 on Free Republic for a stupid statement in 2012 helps anyone except Democrats and GOP-e people.
I certainly would never accuse Freepers of being GOP-e supporters, but I do think some Freepers are repeating GOP-e talking points, quite possibly without even realizing they are doing so. The result is that they're unintentionally helping GOP-e people accomplish their agenda.
I'm one of the offenders you're addressing. Let me start with this: Were I a Missouri voter, I'd have cast my vote for Akin.
My objections to Akin had nothing to do with his evangelical identity and resultant pro-life policy. Only to the very shortcomings you mentioned -- he was unprepared to answer a question he knew would be coming and he stubbornly hung on after he had made himself electoral dogmeat.
As such, Akin single-handedly squandered a great opportunity. But the GOP-e was perfectly capable of the same -- as evidenced by their candidates in North Dakota, Montana, etc.
Thank you for your post. I was a supporter of Akin and I endorsed him in the primary. The attempts by some Tea Partiers to dismiss him as “not one of ours” or as some liberal plant the Dems and establishment wanted is disingenuous.
While McCaskill’s campaign did hedge their bets in having him as their opponent, it was a WILD stroke of luck that it worked in their favor for the general election. Their bet was PRIOR to the rape comments that his record would be “too Conservative” for Missouri. It wasn’t. He had a wide lead over McCaskill that would’ve carried to the general were it not for that “x” factor no one can take into consideration.
I personally thought he could ride out the comments, but that proved not to be the case. Given that he never recovered in the polls, he should’ve withdrawn, as any other Republican nominee would’ve defeated McCaskill. We do have to instill in our candidates that it’s not just about them. Akin should’ve taken the example of Clayton Williams in TX, and that is, aside from mentioning that they are pro-life, not to get dragged down into semantics or ill-advised or inappropriate comments and details that are out of their field of knowledge. This dragged down not just one Senate candidate, but two, the other being Mourdock in IN, who was all but assured of winning that seat.
If anything, we probably need a school for Tea Party candidates that instructs them on what to focus on and what to avoid while on the campaign trail. The newbie candidates could use the help, but in the case of Akin & Mourdock, even our more seasoned candidates need some help, too.
To avoid the same mistakes happening again. Conservatives need to stop nominating idiots who make idiotic campaign errors or we'll lose. His failure to withdraw and allow for the possibility of victory should continue to be excoriated for all time so the next idiot from whichever wing of the party that shoots his foot off and has a chance to withdraw so we can still win the race does indeed withdraw rather than obstinately putting his personal ambitions over the greater good. (there should probably be some commas in that sentence, but screw it)
His chances of winning after his blunder were zero, despite what some people choose to the believe, zilch. If other Republicans had "backed him" it would have done nothing but tarnish them by association. Demanding that he withdraw was the right play as was focusing resources on winnable races after the deadline passed.