Formspring Question #451--Akin for a Breakin' Edition

What's your take on Todd Akin's comments on rape and abortion? Do you think he should be forced out as a candidate? What would happen if he was?

What Todd Akin said about “legitimate rape” was incredibly stupid. It is as though he believes a woman’s body has some sort of biological filter that can tell when semen is non-consensual and rejects it. Akin sites on the House Science and Technology Committee, too, which is further evidence of way Congress is such a failure. Aikin is not exactly the guy the GOP wants front and center. The establishment has apparently never been big on him, so one guesses he has probably said things like this before but managed to fly under the radar with it.

Should he quit? Not really. If we dumped every politician who said something stupid, we would all have to become anarchists. I tend to think nominating a candidate is like the you break it, you buy it policy at many stores. The last election cycle had Christine O’Donnell easing the Delaware voters’ concerns she might be a witch and mentally ill, shortly thereafter Alvin Greene swiped the Democrat nomination for Senate in South Carolina against everyone’s better judgment. Yes, they both lost in the general election, so there was a price to pay for not switching horses in midstream. But is it really a good idea to dump legitimately nominated candidates when you suddenly discover they have opinions you do not like?

I have no idea what would happen if Akin was forced to quit the race. There was supposedly an optimal deadline for him to do so 5 PM Tuesday, but he obviously did not honor it by quitting. Whether that deadline meant someone else coul be placed on the ballot if akin resigned or something else along those lines, I do not know. Considering the party’s adamancy in dumping him, I am certain they would have some plan in place to put a candidate up against McCaskill. They certainly would not let her walk away with the election, particularly since GOP control of the Senate might hinge on her defeat.

I do not know how sincere he is, but Akin did say he would drop out if his support fell because of his remarks. His base mayy very well not be bothered by in his remarks in the first place, or genuinely forgive him, or hate Claire McCaskill enough to overlook the matter. Whatever happens, the whole bruhaha is going to blow over, probably by coverage of Tropical Storm Isaac. People have short attention spans about the length of a news cycle.

If the Democrats truly plan to make their entire convention an effort to Akinize the GOP as conducting a war on women, it will backfire. The economy is so deep in the tank, one cannot see how we can dig out of it in the foreseeable future. Harping on social issues may fire up those Democratic women who assume the only way to identify as a female is to espouse abortion rights, but they are already fired up. Everyone else has economic concerns. Again, the akin controversy will blow over even if his critics keep hammering him on it.