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49 posted on Fri Aug 24 2012 17:30:02 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Charles Henrickson: “However, if Akin is the only alternative to McCaskill on November 6, I will still vote for him. And, after September 25, I may even get a yard sign and a bumper sticker. Here's how I may have to persuade people to vote for Akin: ‘Look, he may be a doofus, but at least he's better than McCaskill, and he may give us a Senate majority, and he will push the button the right way on votes—repealing Obamacare, for instance.’”

I think we agree.

Rev. Henrickson and I both live in Missouri. One of Akin’s primary opponents, Sarah Steelman, is my former state senator. Akin is Rev. Henrickson's congressman. I think we both know the candidates pretty well, but lots of non-Missourians on this board seem to think they know a lot about how to win Missouri elections.

I spent some time yesterday talking to a couple of people on the national level about this election on Akin’s chances in rural Missouri, and my statement was that if Akin decides to stay, he may be able to win using a social conservative base which is very upset and thinks the Republican Party is ignoring our concerns. He was not the Republican favorite to win the primary, he wasn't particularly popular in the Republican circles that are now attacking him, and his attitude seems to be that they haven't done anything to help him before, so why listen now?

That sounds a lot like a SoCon version of the more secular tea party anti-establishment attitudes that make people very popular on Free Republic. So why all the outrage on Free Republic against Akin? Right now I think Akin's core supporters in Missouri and the national social conservative movement think Akin says stupid things, not that he's wrong on the issues that matter.

That could change and Akin better not make any more gaffes. That one was a doozy and I don't think he can survive chronic foot-in-mouth syndrome.

I do have to say a few good things for McCaskill, however. She knows her state and she's kept a focus on military-related issues. We could do a lot worse as far as Democrats go. She knows she will never carry our county, but still spends a lot of time around here as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Her strategy, as with the Carnahan family, is to keep from being blown away in rural Missouri by getting old traditional conservative Democrats to vote for her instead of the Republicans.