If you wondered why the FBI could possibly have been interested in a congressman skinnydipping in the Sea of Galilee, well, it wasn’t. Ryan Reilly explains.
As Evan McMorris-Santoro just reported, in the face of overwhelming Republican machine demands for him to withdraw from the Missouri Senate race, Rep. Todd Akin (R) has just launched his “I’m Not Quitting’ ad campaign. And remember, it matters a good deal whether Akin drops out tomorrow or the day after, even assuming he drops out at all. Because the first deadline for getting out is tomorrow afternoon. Read More
A glimpse at Todd Akin’s last-ditch fundraising push to prove his viability as a Senate candidate despite no national GOP support.
Snap PPP Poll shows the Missouri Senate race essentially unchanged: Akin over McCaskill 44-43. Little changed from previous poll.
Late Update: Surprised? I can’t say I am. And you shouldn’t be either. Don’t underestimate partisan division and affiliation, the fact that Akin’s views aren’t that odd or disagreeable to a lot of people and the simple fact that people don’t change their minds that easily in 24 hours. But … this is a poll that only Claire McCaskill could love. Read More
Of all the developments in The Voting Wars since 2000, the lead story has to be the successful Republican effort to create an illusion of a voter fraud epidemic used to justify a host of laws, especially tough new state voter identification requirements, with the aim to suppress Democratic turnout and to excite the Republican base about “stolen” elections. Democrats sometimes have exaggerated the likely effects of such laws on turnout–we won’t see millions of voters disenfranchised by state voter id laws, for example. But in a very close presidential election, as we are likely to see in November, new voter id rules, voter purges in places like Colorado and Florida, cutbacks in early voting in Ohio, and other technical changes have the potential to suppress Democratic turnout enough to swing the election from Obama to Romney.
How did we get here? Our story begins with what Josh has aptly referred to as “bamboozlement” by a group of political operatives, “The Fraudulent Fraud Squad.” Read More
New Akin TV spot: “I ask for your forgiveness.”
Ryan Reilly goes inside the war room of the groups battling against the forces of voter suppression in 2012.
Rep. Steve King gave a tepid defense of Todd Akin Monday, while every other Republican in the universe was pushing him toward the exit. King also may have stirred up a controversy of his own: “I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way,” he told an Iowa reporter who asked about pregnancies as a result of statutory rape or incest.
It’s hard to believe there’s anything left to say about Todd Akin’s rapid meltdown, but I think one misunderstanding — or in some cases intentional misreading — still underlies a great deal of what’s already been said. And it cuts right to the questions of what made Akin’s comments so upsetting and so incendiary and why the GOP has tied him to the train tracks. Read More
Addition of Paul Ryan to the ticket moves Wisconsin from leans Obama to toss up.