1. Wingnut GOP Senate candidate* answers a question about abortion in the case of rape by saying that he “understands[s] from doctors’ that pregnancy is “really rare” in cases of “legitimate rape” because “the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”(Most recent paper estimates 32,000 rape-created pregnancies per year.)
2. The Romney-Ryan ticket runs away from the candidate.
3. The candidate backs off his “offhand comment.” He “misspoke.” Doesn’t explain how he invented new biology “offhand,” or when he un-invented it.
4. Intrade odds of Claire McCaskill’s re-election go from 3:2 against to better than 2:1 on.
We’ve come to accept as a reality that voters won’t punish wingnut candidates for saying wingnutty things and inventing scientific “facts” to suit their prejudices. But maybe that’s no longer true. Kudos to Talking Points Memo for making this a national story quickly.
* Yes, he’s against federal aid to student lunches, thinks that the student loan program is “a Stage III cancer of socialism,” and wants to abolish the direct election of senators. He defends the Ryan plan by falsely claiming that “Obamacare ends Medicare.”
Footnote Yes, the abortion exception makes hash of the entire right-to-life case. So, his absurd biology aside, Akin’s stance (and Paul Ryan’s former stance) makes more moral sense than the more politically acceptable ban with a rape-and-incest exception. That’s life in the big city.