Republican stance on abortion mirrors Akin's
A joint statement by Missouri’s Republican senator Roy Blunt and four former Missouri Republican senators said they did not “believe it serves the national interest for Congressman Todd Akin to stay in this race . . . The issues at stake are too big, and this election is simply too important.”
The appeals strengthened the determination of Akin, who compared himself to “Braveheart” and said he was being attacked for “one word and one sentence on one day” by the “big party”. A devout Presbyterian who home-schooled his six children, Akin believes he is on a mission from God. He proposed legislation to name 2008 “the National Year of the Bible” and to promote the Ten Commandments.
Republicans have not known such embarrassment since David Duke, a former Louisiana state representative, former “grand wizard” of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and former neo-Nazi, insisted on challenging George HW Bush for the presidential nomination in 1992.
Party leaders failed to dissuade Sharron Angle of Nevada and Christine O’Donnell of Delaware – both of whom were supported by the Tea Party – from standing for the Senate in the 2010 midterm elections. Angle suggested Americans might have to take up arms “to fight for their liberty” while O’Donnell had equated masturbation with adultery. Both women lost.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published yesterday showed Obama leading, on 48 per cent to 44 per cent for Romney. About one-third of respondents said Romney cared more than Obama about average people, women or seniors.
The poll showed that Romney has not benefited from a “bump” for naming Paul Ryan as his running mate.
Twenty-two per cent of those polled said Ryan’s presence made them more likely to vote for Romney; 23 per cent said it made them less likely and 54 per cent were indifferent.
Fifty per cent of respondents agreed with Obama that Medicare insurance for the elderly should not be turned into a voucher programme, while 34 per cent agreed with Romney and Ryan. In yet another self-destructive move, the Republican platform calls for a transition to a voucher system, and for raising the age for Medicare eligibility.
