I could talk about the fact that same-sex marriage actually survived when put to a public vote. I could talk about the funniest line I’ve heard in a while, “In Colorado, marijuana got 50,000 more votes than President Obama.” But I’ll leave that to others; it is my job to explain to you liberals that while last night was a win for basic biology, don’t gloat–because it could have gone the other way.
So let’s start with the fact: the trainwreck that is Todd Akin lost to Claire McCaskill by 16%. But he did not lost because of the infamous “legitimate rape” remark, so don’t let the 16% margin fool you. Here are some things you need to know about Tuesday’s election here in Missouri:
1. Missouri splits tickets more often than most states. In terms of Tuesday’s election, Mitt Romney won Missouri; but only by 10 points. (see #2)
2. Other than Lt. Governor, no Republican won state-wide office this year. So Todd Akin was going against a headwind no matter what.
3. Republican money didn’t come back to Todd Akin until it was too late. (and yes, it did come back) As opposed to Richard Mourdock, national Republicans withdrew money from Todd Akin. And if you contrast the results of the Indiana election and Missouri, while both Todd and Mr. Mourdock lost, Mr. Mourdock’s margin of loss was only 4.5 to 5.0%.
4. “legitimate rape” was NOT the most foot-up-his-a** comment Todd Akin made.
5. It came out that Todd Akin had been arrested at an anti-abortion protest. This, in-and-of-itself, is not that big of a problem; the problem comes in in the group he was arrested with.
This is just a small list to explain the reasons why Todd Akin lost. And the reason that I’m explaining it to you liberals is so you don’t misunderstand what went on here in Missouri. Dominionist theology is still widely believed in many places in outstate Missouri, not to mention anywhere else. Just because the Dominionists lost this time, doesn’t mean that they won’t be back—they will.
So as I said in my last posts on Todd Akin (here, here, here, here), one must fight theology with theology. It’s time to get to work.
