Posted on 08/24/2012 6:32:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Argh. What are the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and grassroots Republicans and conservatives, supposed to do, now that Todd Akin has exponentially complicated the effort to defeat Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri, and win the three (or four, if Romney doesn’t win) seats needed to take over the Senate?
All they have is Nebraska, where state senator Deb Fischer holds an 18-point lead over Democrat Bob Kerrey in a seat where incumbent Democrat Ben Nelson is retiring, and North Dakota, where Rick Berg is up 9 on in a seat where incumbent Democrat Kent Conrad is retiring . . .
and Montana, where Rep. Denny Rehberg has a small but consistent lead over incumbent Jon Tester . . .
and Wisconsin, where Tommy Thompson has an increasing lead over Tammy Baldwin to fill the Senate seat occupied by the retiring Herb Kohl . . .
. . . but they have to make up the likely loss in Maine, where either a Democrat or a Democratic-leaning independent is likely to replace Sen. Olympia Snowe . . . and they need to keep Sen. Scott Brown in office in Massachusetts, where the latest poll has him . . . er, only up by 5 . . .
. . . and they have to hold Indiana in a presidential year, when Rasmussen has Republican Richard Mourdock slightly ahead . . . and make sure that Sen. Dean Heller keeps his consistent lead in Nevada . . .
and . . . hey, wait a minute . . . Connie Mack looks pretty competitive against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in Florida . . . George Allen remains neck-and-neck with Tim Kaine in Virginia . . .
. . . what’s this? Could incumbent Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown really be tied with GOP challenger Josh Mandel in Ohio, as Rasmussen suggests? And what’s this eye-popping suggestion that in Connecticut, “former wrestling executive Linda McMahon holds a narrow lead over Democratic Congressman Chris Murphy in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at Connecticut’s U.S. Senate race. A new telephone survey of Likely Voters in Connecticut shows McMahon with 49 percent of the vote to Murphy’s 46 percent . . .”
Gee, suddenly the outlook for Republicans in the Senate races doesn’t look so bad anymore, does it?
Oh and just because things look good for the Republicans despite his intransigent position on leaving the race, is that necessarily a good thing? He should get out of the way.
Football analogy....ok so the St. Louis Rams are a weak team and the Packers might beat them with a backup quarterback and not Aaron Rodgers....good idea? C'mon. Akins needs to step away and let the team win here....both at the top of the ticket and in the senate. For the love of... Let's not leave this up to chance.
It’s not our decision to make. Akin won the primary. If we are going to play the “If he wasn’t so selfish game” so many of us wouldn’t be extorted into supporting Romney, because he would have not even run.
The Republicans need to just ignore the media’s concentration on Akin’s comments. Keep on message, and keep the focus on the economy. The folks making the most noise about Akin’s comments were never going to vote for him, or the Republicans anyway.
The problem is, once Akin won the primary, there is no “coach”. He is more like a golfer on the PGA tour who just hit the ball down the wrong hill than a football player running the wrong way. There IS no coach, only fans to jeer him. If there were a coach, he would have been pulled. If there were a wise, virtuous coach, Romney would have been pulled.
In a way, Akin has more of a right to his position than Romney does; Akin IS on the ballot.
Romney’s favorabilities are still below those of a ham and cheese sandwich, even with the Jewish community, and he is STILL ahead of Obama.
Akin has decided to plant his flag here, and coming down hard, loud and heavy on him turned out to be a poor tactic, and one that cannot easily be walked back. Akin took the machine’s best shot and he has not retreated. At this point, his aim may not be only at the Senate, or the presidency, but at the machinery itself, posibly for selfish motivations ... it does not matter as he truly is in the driver’s seat.
Akin won the primary.
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He did not “win” the Primary. He advanced on a Plurality of the vote in the 30 percentile range.
Dang. I apologize folks for the double post. Second time today. I’m on my laptop this morning and that’s the only time I do that. My bad.
“The Republicans need to just ignore the media’s concentration on Akin’s comments.”
This is not about Republicans ignoring the media. I daresay most Missouri Republicans will vote for him if he is still a candidate come election day. It is about independents whom he has warded off in Missouri and is now being used as a battering ram by the DNC to turn independents off nationally to the national ticket and other Republican candidates.In this respect the second hand smoke emanating from Missouri is toxic and the only way of ending it is the source withdrawing.
Oh Gawd, please! you must be one of Akin’s kids... Akin is an idiot, may he rot in political hell. I’ll vote a write in candidate before voting for someone who took stupid to a whole new level... you want to stand with stupid, be my guest...
I’d be all for a run-off, as in most cases it would undo the damage of half a dozen conservatives running against a lone establishment guy.
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You mean like what happened in the GOP Presidential Primary? We have a run-off here in Texas. In the Senate race, the strong Conservative candidate, Ted Cruz, went up against the GOP Establishment candidate, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (who almost won outright in the original Senatorial Primary). Cruz came back in the run-off and creamed Dewhurst. In every state that does not have a run-off, Conservatives need to demand that their State GOP Committee adopt the run-off system.
DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS!!!
“He did not “win” the Primary. He advanced on a Plurality of the vote in the 30 percentile range.”
He got 36% of the vote, the other two got 30% and 29%. In a three way primary, that is a WIN. Call it what you want...it is still a win.
Amen to your thoughts, Suzi Q
but suddenly, Obama has pulled to even with Romney in Missouri and this ego Akin guy still hangs tough.
Only because the Republicans are disgusted with Romney and the RNC's interference into their race and Republicans are now saying they won't vote for Romney.
Oh and just because things look good for the Republicans despite his intransigent position on leaving the race, is that necessarily a good thing? He should get out of the way.
He's a good congressman who made one mistake. Enough with the sickening judgment of this man over one sentence. He earned the right to run for the Senate over a decade serving the people of Missouri. What business do you have as someone who never heard of him until this week stepping in and telling him what he or the voters of Missouri should do?
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