Why Akin matters: Obama now leads Romney in Missouri
Yael T. AbouhalkahThink Mitt Romney is a sure-fire winner in Missouri this November? Think again.
At least that’s the takeaway from the new survey, released Friday, by Republican-leaning Rasmussen Reports.
President Barack Obama leads 47-46, wiping out Romney’s previous six-point lead.
Yes, I know, it’s one poll, completely at odds with months of other polls. Obama sure hasn’t been popular for a long time in this state. Then again, this survey ought to at least light a little spark under Obama-believers in Missouri.
And why is this happening?
Thank you, Todd Akin.
The U.S. representative’s inane comments on abortion, which have attracted national attention, seem to have stirred the base of Democratic and independent voters in Missouri.
At least for now, they’re waking up.
Maybe - just maybe - they don’t want Missouri to look like the kind of weird state that supports the kind of nonsenseput on public display by elected officials such as Todd Akin.
The surge for Obama could reflect the fact that Missouri voters aren’t going to - in knee-jerk fashion - follow a Romney-Ryan ticket this fall.
Remember that Paul Ryan and Akin are like brothers on the abortion issue, both hold ultraconservative views that many Missourians don’t agree with. Thanks to Akin and the relentless attention on this issue, Missourians are now aware of that fact.
Notice, too, that Democrat Claire McCaskill has surged to a 10-point lead against Akin, 48-38, in the Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday.
McCaskill can pooh-pooh the results all she wants, partly because she wants Akin to stay in the race and not drop out, as the Republican Party wants.
But I’d look at it another way: That despite McCaskill’s unpopularity - and despite the fact that Akin should never, ever be underestimated (as I wrote Thursday) - it’s also possible that Missourians aren’t as conservative as so many people think they are.
Kent Mueller
8 months, 4 weeks agoSome other possibilities, Yael.
I think it’s more likely that McCaskill hasn’t gotten more popular, it’s that Akin has gotten less popular. What Akin said hasn’t changed McCaskill at all. So, how can people be more likely to like her track record?
Why would you say Republicans have followed Romney/Ryan in knee-jerk fashion? You bring that up now, but I don’t think you or anyone else have said that in the past.
And as for your last statement. The implosion of one Republican candidate wouldn’t affect the voters’ degree of conservativeness at all. Those things aren’t connected.
Rick Adams
8 months, 4 weeks agoJerry and Kent,
You miss an even more likely scenario - one that is common with alcohol/substance abusers prior to hitting rock bottom.
The Republican party has a problem with women.
And gosh darn it my mistaken friend with such a short memory … Mr. Obama inherited an economy in the toilet. If the “closer” in a ball game does not keep a team from losing do you say it was his fault ? Or should you more accurately hand fault off to the guy that get the team down by 10 runs ?
Most of us would get it right - the guy who dropped 10 runs .. aka Bush.
Kent Mueller
8 months, 4 weeks agoRick, you fail to do something very important. You didn’t link the 2008 economy to Bush. Yes, he was President. No, he wasn’t perfect. But the economic problems were mostly caused by record defaults of mortgages which were granted to people who previously did not qualify. It was Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the rest of the Democrats that pushed those mortgages onto those people. The Republicans are well on record of having predicted the impending problems. I presume you knew that?
And Rick, I don’t have a problem with women.
Phil Cardarella
8 months, 4 weeks agoOK, Kent, two thigs:
First, the Myth Of the Mortgages. NO ONE pushed anyone into giving mortgages for 150% of the value of the homes. And for the most part, it was the BALLOONING of the mortgages that got working folks in trouble — folks who could pay their original payments, but not when they doubled. Or not when the lost their jobs in the massive layoffs. The number of mortgages to “unqualified” folks was negligible — and usually resulted from failure of mortgage companies to verify income — not Barney Frank & Chris Dodd.
And, the reason that the polls are shifting is because Mr. Akin not only displayed childish ignorance of anatomy — but because he highlighted his and Mr. Ryan”s and the official GOP position that NO WOMAN HAS ANY RIGHTS superior to those of a one-celled fertilized egg.
Get raped? Tough. Shoulda stayed at home with your doors locked. No abortion, no exceptions. No Morning After Pill. Shoulda thought about that last night, you slut! No common, safe contraception, either, ‘cause the Pill might interfere with “attachment”.
They are not mad at Akin because is out of the GOP line. They are mad at him for spotlighting just how irrationally anti-woman the official GOP line is.
Johnathon Busby
8 months, 4 weeks agoI still have mixed feelings about Akin’s continued presence in the race. On the one hand, he’s an anchor around the neck of the national candidate, but on the other I’m still disturbed that more than 30% of probable voters still intend to vote for the man. The sort of institutionalized ignorance he represents is a great danger to the nation.
Kent Mueller
8 months, 4 weeks agoPhil, if you deny the existence of all the video evidence online of the Democrats promoting and then protecting the failed initiatives to expand home ownership, than I’m not going to argue with you. That is just willful ignorance.
How could the Democrats promote all those ways to increase home ownership without enticing people into mortgages? The default cascade is because people who shouldn’t have had mortgages had them. Thank you, Frank and Chris, et al.