How would those other quotes be “mistakes ?” He’s a Conservative in his votes, not just a talker who turns around and votes for the liberal establishment. It was one thing and one thing only that did in Akin (and same thing for Mourdock in Indiana), and he should’ve been sophisticated enough to know to avoid the topic or state that he is pro-life and keep reiterating the point. If Akin was a “disaster waiting to happen”, he certainly would not have enjoyed a long and successful career in the House. McCaskill took an enormous risk in trying to get Akin to be her opponent, and it just as easily could’ve blown up in her face. The same thing happened a decade ago when backing a certain Kenyan with a name that sounds like terrorists for an Illinois Senate seat (with the thinking that an initially well-regarded Chicago Republican would take him down), and we see how that turned out.
Yeah. Run statewide on a platform of doing away with Social Security and Medicaid and the minimum wage and see how well you do.
If Akin was a “disaster waiting to happen”, he certainly would not have enjoyed a long and successful career in the House.
He ran in a conservative district without any real opposition for five election cycles and not a lot of publicity. No mystery about it.
McCaskill took an enormous risk in trying to get Akin to be her opponent, and it just as easily could’ve blown up in her face.
McCaskill knew exactly what she was doing. She knew she was going to have a hard campaign to begin with and knew that Steelman and Brunner would have been much harder candidates to run against. Aikin was her best chance...and she was proven right.