Thursday, August 23, 2012

Republican Akin's Rape Remark Was Stupid and Wrong. . . But Not Enough For Resignation

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Politicians say stupid things. Some of them say stupid things more often than others. When democrats say stupid things, it gets buried. When republicans say stupid things the media calls for their head. Obama claimed we have 57 States, his grandfather liberated Auschwitz, and called our Navy Hospitalmen "Corpse-men." Vice President Biden has asked a man in a wheelchair to come to his feet, told a black audience that Romney wants to put them back in chains, and. . . well, with Biden the list is pretty long. He's known for spending most of his time with his foot in his mouth. Elizabeth Warren claims she's a minority with one-sixteenth Indian Blood. Reid claims that Romney has paid no taxes in ten years. . . but do you really think that could happen with "our" IRS?

Meanwhile, republican careers have been destroyed by mere accusations, the politics of personal destruction, tapping a foot under a stall door in a bathroom, or by merely misspelling potato. 

U.S. Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri did more than put his foot in his mouth. He shoved his whole leg in right behind it. His "pregnancy is less likely with legitimate rape" was an idiotic statement. But, I am not ready to join the mob with torches and pitchforks calling for his head. I am not ready to burn Akin at the stake.

Would a democrat have caught the same attacks for the same remark? Unlikely. The democrats would have circled the wagons, the media would have joined in, and the democrat would have skated nicely into his next election.

Don't get me wrong. What Akin said was idiotic. What he was trying to say, and what came out of his mouth, may have been different, but what mattered was his utterances, and the words were a doozie.

Think it, Akin, don't say it.

Rape is a sexual assault, a horrendous violation, and the fact that she does not want the act being perpetrated against her doesn't make her less likely to get pregnant. He was trying to defend life. Abortion is murder, even if the life was conceived by a horrific act like rape. I have interviewed the children of rape victims, and I guarantee they were thrilled their moms decided to keep them, even though they were conceived by rape.

Akin won his primary, and the democrats have been all excited about running against him, considering his pro-life position and their accusation of a republican war on women.

Even after the foot-in-mouth moment, according to polls, Akin is still leading against his liberal democrat opponent. Is that why they want so badly for him to resign? Remember, if a democrat had said something like this, it would have been swept under the rug.

I am thinking the democrats would want to keep Akin on the ticket. With this blunder, they would figure a sure win, right? This is a guy that made a statement that gives them plenty of fuel for their politics of personal destruction. Attack, attack, attack.

Akin has said something stupid, but he has harmed no one. He is in position to win, despite the nervousness of the establishment. Sure, he said something stupid. Instead of kicking him to the curb, perhaps we should do as the leftists, and support him.

Teddy Kennedy murdered a woman, and the democrats protected him. Akin shoved his leg down his throat, and now we are ready to crucify him.

Bad move.

Nobody is perfect, and nobody is righteous. He made a verbal mistake. Akin spoke without thinking. Let's move past it, and get serious about defeating the liberal left who has more than poor verbal communications skills in mind. They wish to change the country into something the Founding Fathers never intended.

I will take a republican with a poor choice of words over a Marxist any day.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary


Akin 44, McCaskill 43 - Public Policy Polling

3 comments:

JASmius said...

I wondered if you'd jump in on Todd Aiken's side, Doug. And, bless your heart, you didn't disappoint.

Here's what you've got to understand: the Dems and the Obamedia won't move past this. They will do everything they can to make the election about Todd Aiken and the Magic Uterus. You know that.

Oh, BTW, Aiken now trails Claire McCaskill....by TEN POINTS (per Rasmussen). He cannot win, and his staying in that race forfeits low-handing Senate fruit even more than the Tea Party-driven Senate nominations of Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, and Ken Buck did in 2010. We can't afford to forfeit ANY seats with repeal of ObamaCare in the next Congress at stake, wouldn't you agree?

And this isn't an "Establishment vs. 'True Conservative'" schism, either, as even such noted RINOs as Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and, yes, THE TEA PARTY EXPRESS have called for Todd Aiken to put the country before his own addled pride and fall on his sword in favor of another Republican who can win that must-win seat.

Todd Aiken is a dumbass. He's a dumbass for believing the Magic Uterus Theory, he's a dumbass for publicly endorsing it, he's a dumbass for endorsing it in the stupidest terms humanly conceivable, he's a dumbass for not having the standard pro-life answer in his mental rolodex to the standard Obamedia abortion "gotcha!" question, he's the luckiest dumbass on the planet (apparently) for evidently never having been asked this question before throughout SIX House terms, and he's a traitor to party, cause, and country for not hauling his dumbass out of this race.

You see, Doug, it doesn't matter if Aiken apologized. Republicans don't get to make unforced errors. Democrats do. Joe Biden can do his Apu and Step 'n Fetchit/Rochester impressions all the live-long day. Barack Obama can spell Ohio "O-I-H-O". Doesn't matter. It's not fair. It's horribly unfair. Still doesn't matter. To employ a sports metaphor, the GOP is always going to be the visiting team, the Dems the home team, and the Obamedia are the referees. It sucks, but that's the world we live in. We can't begin to change that if we don't take back the societal institutions that the Left has assimilated over the past century, and we can't do that until we resolve to do what's necessary to not just win occasional elections, but dominate them consistently.

And that cannot happen until we have the sense to stop throwing away winnable races for the sake of unmerited loyalty to dumbasses.

JASmius said...

Jim Geraghty nails it:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I realize almost everyone is sick of hearing about Todd Akin, but sometimes the level of delusion is pretty spectacular, even by the standard of the usual rampaging egos and narcissists of politics. For example, here’s his response to this morning’s Rasmussen poll, which shows Akin down, 48 percent to 38 percent:

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 fact that Claire McCaskill is only polling at 48% after 72 hours of constant negative attacks on Todd Akin shows just how weak she is. If she can’t break fifty percent after a week like this, Democrats should ask Claire to step down. Todd is in this race to win; we will close this gap and win in November with the support of the grassroots in Missouri and across America.”

Potential first lesson of politics: No matter how much you love him, do not select your son to run your campaign. He may have a hard time acknowledging difficult truths when the candidate is someone so close to him.

Not that the Akins care, but McCaskill’s been polling in the low to mid 40s so far, so she’s actually improving in Rasmussen’s latest. Meanwhile, here’s how he was polling in the head-to-head match-ups before his infamous remarks: 51, 47, 49, 50, 45, 48, 50. In other words, he’s dropped significantly, she’s up a bit.

They will “close this gap” — how? By insisting to the world that he’s “standing on principle”, when every principle he claims to hold dear is endangered by his candidacy? Any other pro-life candidate would have a better shot at winning the race in November than Akin.

By endlessly admitting that he was “misinformed” on the issue that is the centerpiece of his campaign and one of his passions?

By endlessly invoking the faux-apology that he “wasn’t perfect”? Trust us, sir, we’ve never held that belief.

By repeatedly invoking primary results, when those primary results would have looked quite differently had Akin made his remarks before GOP primary voters cast their ballots?

By bragging that “hundreds of people have joined our cause” in a state with 4.1 million registered voters?

We’ve seen this before — a candidate makes nonsensical, controversial, or self-destructive statements before the electorate, and the electorate recoils. The rest of the GOP sees signs of trouble, and starts expressing those concerns in increasing volume, but the candidate resists the urge to withdraw from the race. The candidate and the campaign insist to the rest of the party that they know what they’re doing, that the race is still winnable, and that the world will soon be shocked by a most unexpected victory. We saw it from Katherine Harris in 2006, and from Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, and Carl Paladino in 2010.

These candidates and their teams always insist that they know better. They always insist that they have some sort of secret understanding of the race, some sort of secret game plan or strategy that will completely change the circumstances. And they always, always, always lose.

~~~~~~~~

That latest Aiken statement confirms that he's a *retarded* dumbass.

JASmius said...

Ace:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akin Camp: You Should Ask Claire McCaskill To Drop Out
—Ace

That'll work.

Another winner from the House of Ideas.

“The fact that Claire McCaskill is only polling at 48% after 72 hours of constant negative attacks on Todd Akin shows just how weak she is. If she can’t break fifty percent after a week like this, Democrats should ask Claire to step down. Todd is in this race to win; we will close this gap and win in November with the support of the grassroots in Missouri and across America.”

Oh, and in the poll (I think this is a result only available to subscribers) Akin's polling at 47% very unfavorable. Not unfavorable; very unfavorable. Just shy of half the state.

McCaskill also reacted to the Rasmussen poll, saying it "made her laugh out loud" to propose she was only at 48%.

I misunderstood the point of McCaskill's tweet. She's trying to say it's ludicrous that she's so far ahead, in order to encourage her designated patsy to remain in the race.

Jesus God, McCaskill is actually plumping Akin's chances, while Republicans are despairing.

Is this stupid selfish man capable of seeing the world beyond his ego?

~~~~~~~~~

'pparently not.

Dumbass.