Dear Akin supporter / defender / excuser.
I’m going to simply focus on why Akin’s words were completely out of line, and need to be condemned by everyone, and why he needs to get out of the race, now.
1: His words demonstrated extreme moral cowardice.
Akin opposes abortion in cases of rape. Unless you wish to claim that ZERO women each year get impregnated by rape, if you wish to hold Akin’s position you must be ready, willing, and able to answer the question “why should a women who’s been raped be forced to carry the child to term?” Saying “gosh, it doesn’t happen very often” is a worthless cop out. You still think she should have to carry to term when it DOES happen. If you can’t make that argument, drop your opposition to abortion in cases of rape. Because if you really believe the number of such cases is too small for people to worry about them, then demonstrate taht fact by not worrying about them yourself.
2: His claim was and is total bullshit.
A woman who has already ovulated can be impregnated by rape just as easily as by consensual sex. Stress may very well make her less likely to ovulate. It’s not going to make the egg sudden break open once it’s already out.
3: “Legitimate rape” has got to be one of the stupidest ways around to phrase it.
If your issue is with women dishonestly claiming rape just to get an abortion, save it for when Roe and Casey are no longer the law of the land.
If you’re trying to differentiate between forcible rape, and date rape? Don’t. Just don’t.
4: His response proved that he’s not ready for prime time, and running for the Senate is Prime Time.
Look, if Akin’s didn’t realize this question was going to be asked, then he is not qualified to be running for office, because he’s a blithering idiot.
If he did realize such a question would be asked, but wasn’t willing to sit down and practice until he had a good answer ready to go, he’s too damn lazy of a campaigner to be playing with the big kids.
If he knew it was going to be asked, practiced his answer, and this was the answer he put together, then he’s way too f’ing incompetent to be representing the Republican Party at any level.
If he knew it was going to be asked, prepped for it, and then just flubbed his answer, then given the situation, he’s obviously not competent to campaign in the big leagues, and it’s clear that he only won the primary because of Democrat support.
I can not see ANY reason why a real Republican would want to get behind the Democrats’ favorite candidate. Dump him, and get someone better.
Finally, if your sole objection to the “rape exclusion” is that women will use it to get around anti-abortion laws, then act like you have a functional brain, and SAVE IT FOR WHEN ROE V WADE HAS BEEN OVERTURNED. Seriously? At a time when the Supreme Court has a near “abortion uber ales” policy, you want to turn off potential voters by arguing about the hardest cases? WTF?
Christ on a crutch! If we can get Roe / Casey overturned, then we can worry about throwing in rules that say you can only use the rape exception if you reported the rape within 24 hours of it happening. This isn’t brain surgery people. But let’s get a President who will appoint Justices who will overturn Roe, and Senators who will vote confirm those Justices, first.
Cart. Horse. Some assembly required.
If you’re not willing to make the argument that “we don’t kill rapists, why should it be OK to kill an innocent child created by rape?” then just STFU about rape and abortion, OK?
Akin isn’t going down because the Democrats are twisting what he said, he’s going down because what he said was totally indefensible. Republicans aren’t jumping down his throat because of the Democrats hyperventilating, we’re jumping down his throat because he’s proved that he’s an incompetent ass, and he’s going to cost us a Senate race that was a gimme before he screwed up.
And we (I) hate and revile him because he is putting his personal desires / ego / whatever in front of the good of the country. He needs to get out of the race, and needs to do it now. If that hurts him, tough shit. Getting control of the Senate, defeating Obama, and repealing ObamaCare are all infinitely more important than he is.
Any “Republican” who disagrees with that set of priorities is a real RINO.