So Todd Akin Stays in the Missouri Senate Race

So despite calls from Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, to drop out of Missouri's Senate race, Todd Akin is still on the ballot. Nearly every pundit is calling this an easy win for McCaskill now, but what if it's not? What if, despite the inanity of his comments that a woman's body can somehow "shut down" a "legitimate" rape, he still becomes senator? If anything positive is to come out of this mess, it's that the anti-choice stance of the Republican party is coming under fire in a way it hasn't in a long time.

To the chagrin of many Republicans, the controversy has set off a firestorm over abortion and other social issues that distracts from the jobs-oriented economic message Romney and his vice presidential running mate, Representative Paul Ryan, want to send to relatively moderate independent voters. (Reuters)

Not that the Republican position on abortion, or for that matter, LGBT rights or gun control issyes should come as a shock unless you've been living under a rock for the last thirty years, but the current Republican platform is the most conservative in modern history. From Think Progress:

No abortion in cases of rape or incest 

A salute to mandatory ultrasounds 

No legal recognition of same-sex couples 

Arizona-style immigration laws 

Audit the Federal Reserve 

No women in combat 

No statehood, but more guns for Washington D.C. 

One thing that's consistently bothered me about this election cycle is the division between the "real" issues (the economy, unemployment) and social issues (women's rights, LGBT rights), the latter deemed "fringe" or of less consequence than former. When those "fringe" issues directly affect your life, yeah, they matter.