COMMON SENSE FROM SARAH – AT 9:11 A.M. ET:   Republicans face a major crisis in Missouri, heretofore considered an easy win for Romney and an easy Senate pickup in the race against incumbent Claire McCaskill. 

That was before bumbling GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin, in an act of supreme ignorance, uttered his now-famous comments about women and rape.  Despite repeated demands of Republican officials at the highest level, including Mitt Romney, Akin refuses to withdraw from the race, even telling Romney to mind his own business.  His ego can cost a state, and potentiall much more.

What to do?  Sarah Palin has a good suggestion.  From the Washington Examiner:

Sarah Palin endorsed a third-party candidacy against Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., if he persists in his refusal to drop out of the general election campaign after making startling comments about rape and abortion.

“We’ve got to take back the Senate and Missouri is a must-win state,” Palin told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “The way we do that is to have someone like Sarah Steelman be able to run — even if it’s as a third-party candidate — to be able to run and help us take this back.” Palin endorsed Steelman in the primary, which was regarded as showdown for the privilege of challenging the deeply-unpopular Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Steelman was widely regarded by political pros as the best candidate to throw against McCaskill, but Akin won the primary. 

The former Alaska governor reiterated her support for a third-party run when considering how conservatives should respond if Akin does not drop out before the state prints the ballots for the general election.

“Maybe it is a third-party run of Sarah Steelman — that I could get behind,” she said. “Granted, ‘the status quo has got to go’ [Steelman's campaign motto] would be an odd name for a third party, but we’ll coin it, we’ll adopt it, we’ll run with it if that’s what it takes in order to get a common sense, constitutional, happens-to-be-pro-life woman in Missouri to clean up this mess that has been created and at the same time take back the Senate.”

COMMENTS:  Republicans are in a jam, inadvertently feeding the absurd Democratic lie that the GOP is engaged in a "war on women."  In fact, women have been the group most hurt by Obama's economic policies.  Akin is a buffoon, a public embarrassment.  His continued presence is a lightning rod.

And of no help is the GOP platform committee in Tampa, writing rigid, extreme planks on social issues.  Fortunately, Romney has been quick to say that he has his own platform, and his response to Akin has been swift and correct.  But the problems persist.

Getting behind a Republican like Sarah Steelman to run as a third-part candidate in Missouri is a sound idea.  It is action rather than words.  And Steelman might just pull it out.  On the other hand, it could also hand the election to McCaskill, which Akin, if running without a third-party challenge, would probably do anyway.  Republicans have no great choices in this. 

What the GOP should do, though, is contrast its handling of Akin's performance to the Democrats' regular indifference to bad behavior by its own candidates – starting with the deceptions practiced by Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.  Turn this negative into a positive.

August 22, 2012