Akin said what????

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In my humble opinion, that conservative rhetoric simply masks a hardheartedness. Try finding a job when there are none to be had - or employers that will only hire people already working - or won't hire the long termed unemployed. It's more often than not a matter that people on public assistance don't want to find work, but find themselves locked out of them. And then what happens if medical and housing coverage is cut off, then the job ends for whatever reason? Then what of the children? Are they supposed to suffer because their parents aren't working? That talk about self reliance and rugged individualism only hides the real intention of turning their backs on the needy. And the fact is, I've heard plenty of conservative journalists and politicians expressing contempt and even hatred for the poor, and use them for scapegoats for the country's financial woes. How is that caring?
And by the way, talk about buying into partisan BS. The Democrats have no intention of making people dependent on government - just to make life a little easier on the poor.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I will throw that right back into your face and say that I think these welfare programs are designed to keep people in poverty and dependent on Government handouts. Heck, people can get punished for getting a job under the current welfare programs...

Now that's just a paranoid conspiracy theory that the whole idea was to keep people in poverty.
And punished? How? By their benefits being cut off if they find work? How is that punishment? And if someone can remain on a social program after finding work, they only need report the new source of income to the agency giving them aid to avoid "punishment."

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

What this guy has said reeks of, well...... let's just say I hate his guts now. Plain and simple.

Dear Tensu sorry to rag on your state,I didn't notice you were from Nixa,my maternal grandpa was from there.My family arrived in Mo in the early 1800's and we still have our family reunion in Branson.It's just Mo can do better than akin.So I apologize if I offended you.
There's even a small town named for one of my ancestors so I guess I feel like I can comment on what goes on there.Again,sorry.I'll say some positive things,great hospitals in Springfeild ,good roads,and the Mark Twain national forest is gorgeous!And the best animal hospital I've ever went to is in Nixa,I took my pet there.

I'll confess I have not been following this matter very closely, but since I'm actually from the state in question I feel the need to weigh in.

During the republican primary, it was anyone's guess who would be the republican candidate for senator. All the candidates where just spouting buzzwords in their ads and seemed like clones of one another.

All this changed when Claire McCaskill, The democratic candidate and incumbent for senator, singled Todd out and released attack adds claiming he was "too conservative", listing some of the policies he hoped to enact.

Akin's Polls skyrocketed.

After winning the nomination, he made the comment in an interview that he had heard from doctors that pregnancy in the case of rape is rare, and there have been reports released by MD's claiming this, however they where debunked. Mr. Akin had probably heard about the report, but never heard that it was refuted. As someone who has been embarrassed by taking information from legitimate-looking but faulty sources myself, I can sympathize with that.

As for "Legitimate rape", he was just trying to exclude consensual statutory rape, which the report excluded. poor choice of words. we've all been there.

Needless to say, he dropped in the polls after that.

Todd then released adds apologizing for what happened, explaining why it happened, and begging for forgiveness.

And, of course, he fell in the polls further.

Everyone makes mistakes, including politicians. What is important is less wether a mistake is made and more how it is owned up to. Akin did not try to weasel his way out of what happened. He admitted he was wrong. He asked for forgiveness. Doesn't that mean anything to any of you?

The last poll I looked at was KY3's website and it had akin in the lead,I'm sure he is sorry for what he said and it does take balls to apologize but you'd have to be stupid to believe that a woman can't get pregnant from rape.Tell that to all those poor women in Africa who were raped and impregnated by soldiers.And of course he would say he's sorry,he's a politician doing damage control.They do lie you know.Just checked the akin poll,he's got 57%and McKaskill has 35% .

But that's not what he said. He said he heard from MDs that pregnancy from rape is rare. There have been MDs that said that. They were wrong. Todd didn't know that they were wrong.

I never said he fell behind McCaskill. I said he fell.

There are other ways to do damage control. He could have tried to weasel out of it with BS. He could have said nothing. He could have insisted the pseudoscience report was right. But he didn't. Maybe his claims are just damage control, but at least it's sincere looking damage control, which is more than can be said for past damage control. I'm not judging because I've made the exact same mistakes he did. I just had the good fortune to make them on less sensitive topics and in a less public media.

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience
so that they believe they are as clever as he.
Karl Kraus

So giving someone the benefit of the doubt makes me stupid?

If I were to pass judgement on a man for making a mistake similar to ones I have made in the past (albeit on less sensitive subjects) would holding others to a different standard than I hold myself to be your idea of smart?

It doesn't make you stupid. But in this case I think that it makes you naïve.

I don't think that this is a case of honest mistake. I think this is a case of bias confirmation. I rather think that Akin went looking for material to support his attitudes towards broad prohibitions against abortion--and the easiest way to eliminate an exception for rape is to look for evidence that pregnancies are unlikely to arise from rape.

And further, he has not retracted his position--he had only apologized for what he has described as a poorly chosen word. We have no reason to believe that he has accepted that conception is no less likely to occur after rape than after any other circumstance of completed intercourse; and we have no reason to believe that he has changed his political position on an exemption from abortion prohibitions for cases of rape.

Well, he did say that women get pregnant from rape, but then he never said that it was impossible... just unlikely. So I see your point there and to be honest that was not entirely lost on me when I read his apology statement. While the Nixa R-2 school district did a fairly good job at beating the naivety out of me, I guess I have sympathy for Akins because his mistakes remind me of mistakes I have made.

maybe he id went out looking for evidence to support his beliefs, but then doesn't everybody? I mean you want to be able to back up any claim you make with something. I suppose you could fault him for not taking due diligence to make sure his information was credible, but this report did come from an MD. While that doesn't mean that he shouldn't have cross-checked I could see why one would assume the information is credible. I will wait to see if he learns from this and takes greater care to fact-check in the future or just repeats this mistake again before I pass judgement on him.

Sure I've said some real zingers, but if someone forgives me for saying something ignorant,it still does not make what I said right.

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
James Thurber

Don't we expect legislators to hold themselves to a higher standard? I certainly have my own biases and prejudices, but I work very hard not to let them interfere with my professional responsibilties. I expect nothing less of the people who are charged with making public policy.

Please enlighten me on who Karl Kraus is. He sounds like a truly wise man.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

If you ask me holding anyone to a higher standard than yourself is too close to hypocrisy for my comforts. Can you really be angry at politicians for being corrupt if you would do the same thing in their position?

Misslizard: I'm not saying that what he said was right: I'm saying I'm willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt until it becomes apparent whether or not he was learned from this because I understand how mistakes like this can happen.