Not only are the political and media class pushing Todd Akin out, but a deadline for a decision looms.
According to Roll Call:
"Missouri state law allows a nominated candidate to withdraw his or her bid for office by 5 p.m. on the 11th Tuesday before the election which, as it turns out, is tomorrow. If Akin drops his bid before tomorrow's deadline, the state's GOP central committee would pick his replacement."
I'm sure I'm the only (other?) person in the world who thinks this, but I actually think Akin should stick it out.
This isn't satire and I'm not an Akin partisan (or a McCaskill one for that matter). As an Illinois resident, and therefore the victim of my own fair share of embarrassing politicians, I literally don't have a horse in this race, but for other reasons as well.
What I don't care for is that he is being bullied out because of clumsy comments and not for an actual policy or Argentinian shenanigan.
The whole point of my Monday post was that this is something that could blow over considering the time remaining before Election Day and the political situation in Missouri. However, the bad press escalated so quickly that Republicans have abandoned him in droves and the Republican National Senatorial Committee is pulling its money out of Missouri.
Despite an impromptu Public Policy telephone poll conducted on Monday that still showed Akin leading McCaskill 44-43, the same margin as a poll months ago by PPP and his standing among independents unchanged, a candidate without party backing and withering support from the grassroots isn't sitting pretty.
We'll know by later today what Akin decides. Right now the common thread is that he needs to step down for the good of the party to give them a chance to nominate a new candidate who will have an opportunity to beat McCaskill.
This is just PR.
Any new candidate who has not been campaigning, fundraising and will have to cobble together a staff for a seventy-day campaign isn't going to be much more than a sacrificial lamb.
Obviously no Republicans wants to be attached to Akin. This much is expected. With every Republican from Mitt Romney to Mitch McConnell to RNC chairman Reince Priebus unequivocally denouncing him and telling him to get out they are clearly worried that Akin's gaffe will infect the entire Republican body politic. The plan is to confine the political damage to one state.
The 5 p.m. deadline is approaching and the object of the "Two-Minute Hate" may very well relent. And while it may be reading too much into a phone survey, but PPP is effectively saying the same thing I was: the "legitimate rape" comment was a bomb, but it also doesn't mean that this race is actually about Akin's social views, but McCaskill's unpopular record.
