One of the things about my field that's so sobering is just how fast a reputation can be sunk. Call it the Tiger Woods Attack, or Paterno Syndrome. Everyone who does what I do knows that you can spend years (not to mention scads of cash) building a rock-solid public image, and that the failure to respond properly to even the smallest mistake can wash it all away.
That's been Todd Akin's day today. Over the weekend, Akin, who's running for the U.S. Senate from Missouri, said some very dumb things in a TV interview. An early adopter of the Tea Party, Akin had been leading the Democratic incumbent, Claire McCaskill, in polls. And now he's got the head of the GOP ticket disavowing his remarks and the national party pulling its funding from his race. Now, this is a race that the GOP needs to win in order to flip control of the Senate - so, if the national party basically telling Akin to step out of the way is the "damage control" version of the solution, you KNOW he's toast.
And he should be. This isn't a case of someone who speaks publicly all day long flubbing verbally a single time. Saying that rape victims' bodies have magical sperm-zapping powers isn't mis-speaking. It's evidence of ignorance so deep-seeded that this man has no business anywhere near the authority to pass legislation that impacts 300 million Americans. If a candidate for national office said publicly that we need to strengthen the EPA so that dinosaurs don't get food-poisoning, no one would question that he's a crackpot.
Akins isn't disqualified for office because he's anti-choice. He's disqualified because he's an idiot. He's called his initial remarks "a very, very serious error." No word on whether he thinks the error is what he said - or what he seems to believe.
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