This absolutely **MUST** be the last gaffe of this type.Can one put a little more pressure on the guy? Anyone standing up for life has a difficult road ahead of him. I hope parents in general are kinder to their children (adult or otherwise) who makes mistakes, than they have been to Todd Akin.
“There is no forgiveness in politics.”
-William Jennings Bryan
I may agree with your underlying point, but not the specific application.
I have two nieces who live with me. One is 13; the other is 21. Both consider me to be very kind and gentle, which may say less about me and more about their father, who was in the South Korean Special Forces. Parenting styles differ and there is nothing wrong with that as long as biblical principles are followed.
When my 13-year-old niece makes a mistake, it usually is something that affects nobody outside our home, and the consequences rarely extend beyond herself. For example, if she fails to do her homework, we have a talk about being responsible in small things and how that trains us to be responsible in bigger things, but the fact is she's hurting mostly herself.
For now.
On the other hand, when my older niece enters the Army, her decisions will have the very real possibility of getting people killed. She is a good marksman already and could very easily end up needing to use that skill. More significantly, in the MOS she wants, she will be directly involved in life-and-death decisions. Even though she won't be in direct combat by design, we all know there is no such thing as a front line anymore and combat can come to anyone anywhere who wears the uniform. Even apart from life-and-death decisions, I've shown her news coverage of Abu Ghraib to illustrate how much damage a soldier can do to America by dumb choices. I have made extremely clear to her that when she puts on the uniform of the United States Army and has a flag on her shoulder, she represents America and American values to a lot of people who will know very little about America firsthand except what they see from her.
That's responsibility, big time, and I've told her that her choices can either help or hurt many people besides herself.
When Rep. Akin made a mistake — and he's admitted to doing so — his mistake carried massive consequences. He needs to be held accountable for his actions. Now that he's decided to remain the Republican nominee, he needs to watch very carefully that he doesn't do anything else to wreck his campaign and that of others.
Rep. Akin won the Republican primary fair and square, and he did so by a pretty significant margin of six percentage points. This was the breakdown:
Todd Akin REP 217,428 36.0%
John G. Brunner REP 180,796 30.0%
Sarah Steelman REP 176,146 29.2%
http://enr.sos.mo.gov/ENR/Views/TabularData.aspx
It was his decision whether to pull out or stay in the race. Now that he's decided to stay in, it is critical that he not make another major mistake that could not only cost the Republican Party this senate seat but also harm many other candidates in this state and elsewhere.
To fail to call Rep. Akin to fulfill those responsibilities is not being kind to him or to anybody else.