Of all of the races yesterday, the most interesting for me was the Missouri Senate race. Senator Claire McCaskill was one of the least popular members of the Senate and a virtual guarantee for defeat until Rep. Todd Akin delivered victory from the jaws of defeat. Akin’s infamous rape remarks made him completely toxic to the entire nation and the GOP leadership quickly called for his withdrawal from the race. Akin treated the suggestion as absurd and allowed two deadlines to pass that would have allowed his party to repair the damage that he caused. At one time, politicians would put the interests of their party and their country before their own. However, we live in a different time and Akin is the face of the times: egotistical, selfish, and extremist. Linda MacMahon in Connecticut cut the same intensely egotistical image: spending $100 million of her own money in two unsuccessful efforts to make herself a Senator despite a fairly toxic personality and image associated with professional wrestling. Despite the sound defeat in the last election, MacMahon spent even more of her own money as the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment to secure a second defeat. The question for the GOP is whether the disaster this election will cause anyone in the party to consider the eradication of moderates in their party and the loss of what we once called “Rockefeller Republicans.”
In the end, Akin appears to have been unable to even break 40 percent of the vote.
Had Akin withdrawn, the GOP would have likely secured the seat in Missouri. Not only Akin but the entire Tea Party worked last night to the great benefit for the Democrats — alienating moderate voters and securing wins across the country.
Akin will be left to history as a sad clownish figure who refused to accept the obvious reality that his own comments and extremist views destroyed any chance for election. MacMahon will fill another footnote on the amount of money someone is willing to spend in pursuit of egotism. Notably, MacMahon never appeared to have any particular vision or idea or cause — she just wanted to be a Senator and thought she had the money to guarantee it like some choreographed WWF bout. They are not the only such figures in this election.
The question is how we end up with such caricatured candidates in national elections and the overall low quality of politicians in this country. I have long blamed the monopoly of the two major parties on our politics. I still hold that view. However, Akin also represents a sad cultural reality today. It is not just the loss of moderation in politics but a loss of a sense of personal integrity and responsibility. Akin immediately blamed others and refused to stand aside for the benefit of his state and party. He is for me the face of what is wrong with our politics: an anti-intellectual extremist who ultimately shows little sense of duty or calling beyond himself.
Source: USA Today
Hoping Heidi Heidkampf hangs on. Her opponent was another one of these right wing anti- choice extremists that did not get as much publicity as Akin and Mourdock.
Elaine:
““The highlight of politics,” he said, “is to inflict my opinion on someone””.
did he really say that? I think he deserved to lose.
Politics should be about making people’s lives easier by increasing freedom and prosperity.
AY,
“Clarification Elaine….. There are many people of many ethnically diverse backgrounds that make up the GOP…… It’s not just white guys…… But explain that to a bigot….”
*****
Did I say anything about the GOP except for its attitude toward women? Are you implying that I’m a bigot?
Frankly….. That’s like saying all Muslims are evil…or all Jews are stingy….. Some may be….. But not all…..
Actually people, we need to be thanking Mr. Akin for being as stupid and midevil as he is… and for being gracious enough to hand us this Victory. Thanks Todd, you butt-hole……………
Frankly, Too bad Bachmann won but the news is an old acquaintance from the seventies, Rick Nolan, made a comeback in Minnesota.
I don’t disagree…. But just because you’re a Republican and white does not necessarily make you a bad person…. There are just as many a$$wipes that are democratic…. I do understand your point very well….. But to call someone out just because they are a white male makes you a bigot…..no one scrapping on that…..
AY – the GOP has been running against blacks, latinos, women and gays for a very long time (at least the mid 60’s) and it has severed them very well (the country? not so much). But they are on the wrong side of history and of demographics. Their ignorant, bigoted and anti-American positions have become the bedrock on which they built their house and an earthquake is happening around them.
If I may quote Lee Atwater, St. Ronald’s politic guy:
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
It goes well beyond just blacks in todays GOP. But just because white people pretend they don’t know what the GOP means does not mean that people of color and women don’t hear them loud and clear.
Thanks for th. Clarification Elaine….. There are many people of many ethnically diverse backgrounds that make up the GOP…… It’s not just white guys…… But explain that to a bigot…..
Elaine, My daughter was so happy that Mourdock and Akin lost. They put a face on the republican party that will last a very long time.
Swarthmore mom,
And the prevailing Republican attitude toward women certainly hurt the GOP.
Republican attempts to suppress the vote appeared to have backfired. People were willing to stand in line 6 to 8 hours to vote for Obama.
Say….. Now that the Election is over, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and others like them, with similar beliefs…. can all go ”FORK” themselves!!!! Without the benefit of birth-control, abortion….. or lubrication!
Excellent Elaine….
SM,
This is directed at you….Until, you alienate them….
At least the repubs still have their queen, Bachmann. She narrowly won but that is offset by the return of Alan Grayson and the loss of Allen West.
Donnelly triumphs over Mourdock in Indiana Senate race
By Kim Geiger
Tribune Washington Bureau
November 7, 2012
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mourdock-loses-indiana-senate-race-20121107,0,3555957.story
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Donnelly defeated Richard Mourdock in the Indiana race for Senate, delivering Democrats a seat that was long held by Republicans.
The race, which was called Tuesday by the Associated Press and NBC News, became unexpectedly competitive when Mourdock, riding a wave of tea party frustration with Washington, ousted longtime Sen. Richard Lugar in the Republican primary.
The move infuriated so-called Lugar Republicans — moderate voters who admired the elder statesman’s ability to reach across the aisle, particularly on matters of foreign policy, to get things done in Washington. And it created an opening for Donnelly, the Democratic candidate, to vie for those voters.
Mourdock took a different approach. He doubled down on the strategy that had helped him win the primary.
“Bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view,” he said in a TV appearance just hours after he had won the nomination.
“The highlight of politics,” he said, “is to inflict my opinion on someone else.”
Elaine, It was well worth the struggles even the ones on this blog 😉 White guys don’t rule but some are our strong allies.
On the gender gap Elaine points to: how much was a voted for “Mr. Tepid” Obama, and how much a vote against a repub party vying to drag the country back to the middle ages?
Good that Romney is vanquished. But progressives still have the same half-stepping Wall Street/MIC shill in the WH. Let’s see exactly how much fear Obama can generate around the ‘grand bargain’ to sell us out more.
Gender Gap In 2012 Election Aided Obama Win
Posted: 11/07/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/gender-gap-2012-election-obama_n_2086004.html
Excerpt:
The Obama campaign’s heavy focus on women’s issues for the past year paid off in a big way on Tuesday night, resulting in an 18-point gender gap that largely contributed to the president’s reelection.
According to CNN’s exit polls, 55 percent of women voted for Obama, while only 44 percent voted for Mitt Romney. Men preferred Romney by a margin of 52 to 45 percent, and women made up about 54 percent of the electorate. In total, the gender gap on Tuesday added up to 18 percent — a significantly wider margin than the 12-point gender gap in the 2008 election.
Women’s strong support in the swing states gave Obama a significant advantage over Romney, despite his losses among men and independents. While Obama lost by 10 percentage points among independents in Ohio, he won by 12 points among women in the state. In New Hampshire, women voted for Obama over Romney by a margin of 58 to 42 percent, while men preferred Romney by a narrow 4-point gap. Pennsylvania showed a 16-point gender gap that tipped the scale toward Obama.
Romney seemed to struggle to connect with women as a result of the GOP’s escalating efforts to limit women’s reproductive rights and a series of controversial comments from Republicans about rape, birth control and abortion. Romney, in particular, alienated many female voters by dodging questions about equal pay legislation, pledging to defund Planned Parenthood and overturn Roe v. Wade, and backing legislation that would allow employers to deny women birth control coverage.
Please don’t blame Todd for all this, he had plenty of help. When all is said and done all Akin was doing was openly saying what the powers that be withing the GOP think. The real shame is that they are stupid enough to believe it.
Today there will many calls for bipartisanship from the right along with long-winded rants about “no mandate” and “not really legitimate”. The MSM will continue to call for compromise. The best analogy I have heard on the GOP idea of compromise
Lets have Dinner
Obama: How about Italian?
GOP “TIRE RIMS AND ANTHRAX OR NOTHING!!”
Media:”Why won’t Obama compromise?”
Excellent points….. And I agree totally…..