Akin has apologized but resisted calls from Republican leadership to withdraw from the race. The controversy has obvious implications for the Missouri Senate race, the closest race in the country in 2008 and the only swing state that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain carried that year. The repercussions have have also resurrected the national fight over abortion at a time when the party intended to hammer Obama on economic issues.
Romney moved swiftly to condemn Akin’s remarks and to announce he would not oppose abortion in instances of rape. Some political experts say Romney cannot escape the controversy because it links Akin with his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. Akin and Ryan co-sponsored a bill that initially distinguished between “forcible rape” and other categories of rape, although the language was eventually changed.
Democrats contend the Republican platform — which supports a constitutional ban on abortion without specifying any exceptions — mirrors Akin’s policy views.
But Democrats say the Akin controversy will hurt the Republicans, come November, because his views are too extreme for most Americans. ”
GOP members said the issue could hurt the Republicans in Missouri but not nationally.
Will issue impact race?
The two sides on the abortion issue faced off Wednesday afternoon when a statewide anti-abortion bus tour made a stop downtown Dayton. Speakers from the Susan B. Anthony List Pro-Life Bust Tour urged supporters to “defeat Obama’s extreme agenda,” while a counter-protester shouted, “The Republicans are the extremists.”
Voters on both sides believe the issue could play in their favor in the Nov. 6 election.
The 30-stop bus tour’s lead speaker, former Republican Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, said that Right to Life women are a strong voting bloc whose voices should be heard. After the rally, Musgrave said she is “very optimistic” that the renewed attention will draw anti-abortion voters to the polls.
Counterprotester Joy Schwab, a member of the Women’s Rights Alliance, believes the Akin controversy and the renewed attention to the abortion issue will hurt Republicans in November. “They have the nerve to call Obama an extremist when they are drawing up a platform that makes them outside of the mainstream of American public opinion,” she said. “Most Americans don’t believe that a woman should be forced to bear the child of a rapist.”
Political analysts are similarly divided about the impact on the election. Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said it is too early to assess the impact the national race. But he warned against jumping to seemingly obvious conclusions.
He noted it was widely speculated that Romney would lose ground against Obama in Florida after picking Ryan because his running mate had proposed changes to Medicare that were unpopular with the Sunshine State’s vast senior population. “When Paul Ryan got picked for vice president, ‘the media group-think’ was, ‘There goes Florida,’” Brown said. “In fact, Romney is doing better in Florida with Ryan than he was before, according to our latest poll.’’
The poll released Thursday gave Obama a 49 percent to 46 percent lead on Romney in Florida. But before Romney teamed with Ryan, Obama had a 51 percent to 45 percent lead.
Bryan Marshall, a political science professor at Miami University, called Akin’s blunder a “gift’’ to Obama’s re-election campaign and Democratic candidates in battleground states, such as Ohio. “This certainly isn’t the issue Romney or Ryan want to be defending or talking about this close to the election,” he said. “What the Republicans want to do is get back and talking about jobs and the economy as a rebuke of Obama. If they’re talking about making hairline distinctions between what forcible rape means and what rape means this close to the election, that’s a loser for them.’’
Most voters typically do not focus on the presidential election in earnest until after Labor Day, Marshall said. But Akin’s comments were so “outrageous’’ that more voters are likely paying attention now. “When you have an election this close…if you can move a few independents or a few more women or a few more moderates your way on an issue that could decide a win from a loss,’’ he said.
Comments might not change votes
Many leading Ohio Republicans, including Senate candidate state Treasurer Josh Mandel, condemned Akin’s remarks.
Mandel said Monday: “I am appalled by his comments, as I’m sure citizens across Ohio are, and believe there is no place or context in which such language is defensible.”
Some voters said the Akin controversy has reinforced the way they intend to vote, rather than changing it.
Many of the anti-abortion activists gathered at the rally Wednesday were passionate about their support for the Romney-Ryan ticket, and said the Akin controversy would not change their vote.
Rachelle Heidlebaugh of Findlay, who spoke at the rally about having an abortion after being raped in 1996, said she stands by Akin as a leader of the anti-abortion movement: “You have to look at his record, not just a word that came out of his mouth during an interview.’’
Heidlebaugh said despite the trauma of her rape, she agrees with Akin that abortion is “never OK.’’
“I bought into the lie that it was OK to have an abortion because I was raped,’’ she said. “But every day I have to live with the pain of knowing that I killed my baby, and that devastation far exceeds the memory of the rape.’’
Vivian Sullivan, who attended the rally to show her support for anti-abortion activists and the Romney-Ryan ticket, described herself as a one-issue voter.
The abortion debate “really shouldn’t be about politics, but Obama made the issue political with his mandate,’’ Sullivan said, referring to Obama administration policies requiring religious institutions such as universities and hospitals to provide contraceptive services to their employees.
“I’ll vote for Romney and Ryan because they will at least try to protect women and children and not force those policies on us,’’ she said.
Carol Cleary described herself as a social values voter who is glad to see the abortion issue in the forefront of the presidential campaign. She is concerned that Akin’s remarks could alienate some voters, but she said, “there’s a possibility that it could bring out the pro-life vote even stronger.”
Other local voters believe the Akin furor, coming so close after the debate on contraceptive coverage, will weaken the Republican ticket. Observed Schwab, “They claim to be the party that gets the government off people’s backs, but they want to force women to have children they don’t want and can’t afford.”
Polls: Obama leads among women
The question remains whether the controversy will widen Obama’s lead among women voters.
The latest Ohio Poll of likely voters released Thursday found women prefer Obama by 18 points, 57 percent to 39 percent.
“Obama has done well with women in Ohio and nationally,” Quinnipiac’s Brown said. “If only women voted, Obama would win by a landslide. That’s pretty clear. But it’s not just women.”
When measuring the abortion issue’s impact on all registered voters, it appears that more opponents than supporters of abortion view it as an important voting issue, based on a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
The poll found that 73 percent of those who say that abortion should be illegal in all cases rate abortion as an very important voting issue, while 55 percent of those who say abortion should be illegal in most cases also rate it as very important, the survey found.
By contrast, just 22 percent of those who say it should be legal in most cases rate abortion as very important to their vote.
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