Behind the Ad: Sen. Claire McCaskill goes after crazy Todd Akin

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.) 

Who: Sen. Claire McCaskill's campaign.

Where: Missouri.

What's going on: Todd Akin, whom many Republicans want to just go away, has decided to stay in the race for the Missouri Senate seat. Now that the deadline has passed for him to get out, incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill is on the attack with a new ad.

It's a compendium of hardcore right-wing statements made by Akin, including reference to the "legitimate rape" comment.

Once upon a time, McCaskill would have been hard-pressed to keep this seat. But I can't imagine Akin could be competitive with so much of his party disowning him. All I can say is that if something goes terribly wrong and he wins this seat, it will be a sad day for the country.

By the way, I notice that the homepage on McCaskill's campaign website announces that "TODD AKIN IS OFFICIALLY CLAIRE'S OPPONENT," all in caps. Someone's happy.


(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)