"Legitimate" Rape and the GOP Take Another Hit in Gender Politics, Courtesy of Rep. Todd Akin

The Republican Party has always suffered a deficit with the female vote but the situation just got a whole lot worse when Republic Representative Todd Akin, who is running against incumbent Democrat Senator Clare McCaskill, let loose with a wildly absurd comment about 'legitimate rape'. There is no such thing as legitimate rape. Rape is a violent crime. Period.

Whatever message Rep. Akin intended to communicate, it was badly botched and set off a political fire storm. Akin is a typical establishment Republican who dwells in the social conservative camp that advocates for endless wars while claiming to be pro-life. His voting record would definitely not be pleasing to any fiscal conservative or liberty activist, here.  Moreover, Akin not only voted for NDAA and the indefinite detention of American citizens, he also voted NO on a measure to repeal the indefinite detention provision of NDAA.  Big spending militarist that he is, he also voted to increase the debt limit.  Pure and simple, Akins is the enemy of liberty and the Constitution.

Akin is not only pro-life and generally opposed to any abortion under any circumstances, his website states "I believe that life begins at conception...".  The folks who believe that human life begins at the precise moment of conception are largely committed to the 'personhood movement' that generally promotes state wide ballot initiatives to grant full constitutional rights to an unborn life.

What exactly did Akin say that got him in so much hot water that it could sink his prospects for the senate? Akins attempted to make the point that 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy and even if pregnancy did result from a rape, the life of the unborn must be protected..

Furor over Todd Akin's 'legitimate rape' comment

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare," Akin told KTVI television in an interview widely distributed by Democrats. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Akin then said that if a woman got pregnant after being raped, there should be consequences for the rapist, but not the unborn fetus.

Huh?

America is a nation where the overwhelming majority of the people support some level of legalized abortion.  That's not about to change anytime soon and campaigning on a message that abortion should be outlawed under just about every circumstance, including rape, is not only a ballot box poison but contrary to American views on abortion rights.

The fact that Akin attempted to distinguish legitimate rape from non-legitimate rape obviously resulted in severe blow back because he effectively marginalized rape, at least in the eyes of those who were grievously offended by his remarks.

How severe is the blow back? Election pundit Nate Silver, who is very good at what he does, actually had given the general election advantage to Akin, until his comment went viral.

Akin Comments Could Swing Missouri Senate Race

In my review of Senate races last week, I classified Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, who won the Republican primary earlier this month, as a very slight favorite over the Democratic incumbent in the state, Claire McCaskill.

Although some Democrats were pleased that Mr. Akin was the nominee, he nevertheless held a small lead over Ms. McCaskill in the polls, which averaged five percentage points across four surveys conducted in July and August.

But that was before Mr. Akin’s controversial remarks about rape in an interview with a St. Louis television station that was broadcast on Sunday morning. The comments, and Mr. Akin’s subsequent explanation of them, drew overwhelmingly negative sentiment at social networking platforms, including on Mr. Akin’s Facebook page.

Here we go again!  America can't have elections based on real issues like the wars, the economy, fiscal and monetary policy because the social issues dominate the election landscape.   However, when it comes to abortion rights, the Republicans always lose.  If Democrat McCaskill keeps her senate seat, the liberty movement will have lost nothing because Akin was just another warmongering, socially conservative big government statist.