Free Republic

Like tightly structured novels, political conventions introduce no random characters or irrelevant passages. So when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez were chosen for prime slots on the night of vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan's national debut, the Romney campaign was intentionally advancing a narrative it will emphasize over the next nine weeks: Women like Mitt Romney. And the endorsement of impressive leaders like Rice and Martinez - not to mention his appealing wife, Ann - suggests that female voters should believe the Romney-Ryan ticket will best serve their interests. It may be a pivotal...

Timing is everything. Maybe Todd Akin chose his words with care. More likely, he didn't. The über-conservative congressman from Missouri was a favorite to snatch a coveted Senate seat in November and thus perhaps help his Republican Party reclaim the majority in both chambers of Congress. Then came Sunday. In a local TV interview, Akin held forth about a favorite issue of his. Abortion, he said, should be illegal even in rape cases because, he claimed, a "legitimate rape" rarely leads to pregnancy: "The female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." … Tough luck if...

"In an interview for Revealing Politics today, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was asked, among other things, if the party’s position on Akin would eventually change if Akin refused to step out of the race: The question is: “If he stays in, is your position eventually going to change? Are you going to have to support him? The Chairman replies “No, no. No. He could be tied. We’re not going to send him a penny.”

If the Republican Party needed any more proof that Missouri Republican Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin was poison to all GOP-ers, they've got it in a new Missouri presidential poll just published by Rasmussen Reports. After consistently trailing Mitt Romney in Missouri, President Obama is now beating him. It's by just one point, 47 percent to 46 percent, but it represents a big change from Romney's 50 percent-46 percent lead he had a month ago. Worse for the Republican: Romney has led in Missouri all year--until the Akin "legitimate rape" scandal. The poll could be proof that the scandal has...

ST. ROBERT, Mo.—Claire McCaskill began a sparsely attended campaign event here Thursday with this quip: "I don't know if you noticed, but my campaign has been really boring lately." The ironic line was one of the few references the Democratic senator made to the political firestorm that erupted after her opponent, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, used the term "legitimate rape" during a TV interview Sunday. Rather than beat Mr. Akin over the head, Ms. McCaskill appears to have decided to let the wrecking ball he set in motion swing all by itself. And unlike the Republican establishment, which has called...

The political furor involving Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri took a nasty turn on Thursday, as Akin's congressional spokesman confirmed that there had been a variety of threats leveled against the Republican lawmaker and his staff. This was the statement put out by Akin's spokesman Steve Taylor: “I can verify that the Capitol police are working with an outside law enforcement agency regarding threatening contact with our official office. The office of Congressman Akin has received threats of rape of his official staff, family and the Congressman himself along with suggestions that individuals should die.” No other details were immediately...

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) raised over $100,000 in a fundraising push started this week after members of the GOP establishment withdrew funds from the Missouri Senate race. He announced the accomplishment in a tweet. "Thousands of people stepped up and helped us raise over $100,000! The message is clear ... voters should pick candidates, not party bosses," he tweeted

August 23, 2012 Todd Akin: That Rasmussen poll showing me down by 10 points is great news Doug Brady I’m beyond speechless. What is this guy drinking? Stacy Drake, one of my fellow C4P editors, summed it up best in an email: Who knew Baghdad Bob moved to Missouri? With that, via Jim Hoft, anyone who goes to Todd Akin’s website will have the privilege of reading the following pearl of wisdom: St. Louis, MO: The following statement was released by Perry Akin, Campaign Manager for Todd Akin for Senate, in response to the Rasmussen poll released this morning: “The...

Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- Facing pressure from Republican heavyweights in Washington to abandon his Missouri Senate bid, Rep. Todd Akin is huddling with top conservative activists in Tampa to assess whether to move forward with his embattled candidacy. Akin spent Wednesday night and Thursday in a series of private meetings at the two-day summit of the Council For National Policy (CNP), a secretive group of conservative leaders who are meeting in Florida before next week's RNC. -snip- Multiple sources at the CNP conference told CNN that Akin is being encouraged by leading figures in the conservative movement to remain in...

After days of ignoring Republican pleas to abandon his U.S. Senate campaign in Missouri, Rep. Todd Akin today received an even more damning message: A new Rasmussen poll shows that Akin, who held a tidy lead before making his controversial comments about rape and pregnancy, is now down 10 percentage points (48-38 percent) to incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Never fazed, the Akin campaign shot back with an unlikely proposal. “The fact that Claire McCaskill is only polling at 48 percent after 72 hours of constant negative attacks on Todd Akin shows just how weak she is,” Akin spokesman Perry...

Todd Akin hasn't had many high-profile supporters with him in the trenches this week, but Mike Huckabee became an important and emphatic exception Thursday afternoon, sending a message to his own supporters accusing Republican elites of trying to drum a good man out of a winnable Senate race. Here's what Huckabee said in an email to his list this afternoon: Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren't rational, left [Akin] behind on the political battlefield, wounded and bleeding, a casualty of his self-inflicted, but not intentional wound.

Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) jumped into the "legitimate rape" fray Tuesday by telling a local reporter that he doesn't personally know of any victims of statutory rape or incest who became pregnant from the attacks. The reporter asked King about a bill he put forward last year that would have barred federal Medicaid funds from going towards abortions except when the life of the mother is in danger or in the case of "forcible rape." (The current law just makes an exception for "rape," without the forcible part.) The new terminology would most likely prevent people who become pregnant from...

What a difference one TV interview can make. Embattled Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill has now jumped to a 10-point lead over her Republican challenger, Congressman Todd Akin, in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race. Most Missouri Republicans want Akin to quit the race while most Missouri Democrats want him to stay. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Show Me State finds McCaskill earning 48% support to Akin’s 38%. Nine percent (9%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

The slavering, slobbering hyenas in the Republican party, by tearing at the flesh of their own senatorial candidate Todd Akin, are doing their best to blow their shot at taking control of the Senate. By eating their own, they are consuming themselves. And they seem too brainless to know it. If he loses this race, it will be the fault of party poobahs, not Todd Akin. One of the party leaders actually suggested last night that the GOP try to run a third-party challenge to their own candidate. That would be a certifiably guaranteed way to forfeit victory to the...

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Barack Obama is mocking Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri for his remarks about a woman's body being able to avoid pregnancy during what Akin called a "legitimate rape." Obama tells a group of donors in New York that the Republican congressman from Missouri "somehow missed science class" even though he sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Around the clock, Democratic candidates, spokesmen, commercials, and the party’s foot soldiers in the news media will labor sedulously to transform the party of Lincoln and Reagan into the party of Akin. By Election Day, Akin will be more famous, ubiquitous, and inescapable than Kim Kardashian. His twisted comments on rape will be played again and again, with spooky music, scary edits, and every instrument in the campaign consultant’s tool box applied to amplify this message. By November 6, the only woman who will vote for Mitt Romney will be Ann Romney — maybe. With women (and many men) terrified...