From “Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Timing Couldn’t Be Worse for Republicans,” Mark McKinnon, The Daily Beast:
“A reporter asked me recently about the importance of convention platforms, and I said I couldn’t remember a convention platform that had any real impact on the outcome of an election. Well, thanks to Missouri Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin, this year’s party platform will likely get a lot more attention than it otherwise would have and could have real impact on the outcome of the election.
“The Akin fiasco could not have been more poorly timed for Republicans.
“So now we can expect days of discussion about Republicans and abortion, and heightened focus on the platform language that was drafted Monday. … That means no exceptions. Not rape. Not incest. Not the life of the mother.
“It won’t matter much that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are saying now they would not oppose a rape exception. Unlike John McCain, who had a history of pushing for an explicit exemption in the language, Romney and Ryan have records that will send a chill up the spine of most women. Romney said in 2007 he would be ‘delighted’ to sign a bill banning all abortions, and Ryan supported legislation restricting abortions to victims of ‘forcible rape.’
“So, thank you, Todd Akin. Just as Republicans were opening their show and hoping to widen the tent, you’ve managed to attract attention to yourself and your caveman views.
“Hear that sound, GOP? That’s women running for the exits — and the big tent collapsing.” Emphasis added.
Um, Mark, Akin isn’t attracting attention to himself and his caveman views, he’s attracting attention to the GOP and its caveman views, to Romney/Ryan and their caveman views. The big tent isn’t collapsing, because it’s a myth, it doesn’t exist.
The problem isn’t that Akin is suddenly making everyone look at the GOP platform and the Romney/Ryan abortion record. The problem is that the GOP has a bat-shit crazy platform, and Romney and Ryan have bat-shit crazy records. Akin isn’t creating a one-man problem, he’s pointing out an existing party-wide problem.
McKinnon’s thank you to Akin is obviously sarcastic, while mine is heart-felt. McKinnon thinks that Akin’s hurting Romney and Ryan is somehow unfair. But if Akin were some freak, he wouldn’t be able to hurt the GOP nationally. They’d be able to dismiss him and his impact would be limited to Missouri and not affect the presidential race or any other races.
McKinnon doesn’t understand that the problem isn’t this one guy, it’s the extremism that has infected and taken over the party. Until they purge themselves of this extremism, rather than try to finesse it and hide it and cover it up, the GOP deserves to lose.
McKinnon is right that the Akin timing couldn’t be worse for the GOP, but it couldn’t be better for the country.
Americans don’t believe women should be forced to endure a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or be forced to die from a pregnancy they can’t survive, as the GOP believes. So Americans shouldn’t vote for the GOP.
If the GOP wants the White House, they have to clean their own house first.
Embattled Farmers 