Todd Akin Apologizes, Krugman Calls Out Ryanomics, and More

Posted on Aug 20, 2012

Sorry for Remarks: Todd Akin, the man who caused a firestorm of controversy Sunday when he falsely claimed women who were victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant, has apologized for his offensive and idiotic comments. On former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s conservative radio program Monday, Akin said: “People do get pregnant. It does happen. I just want to apologize to those I have hurt. I’ve spoken in error.” Akin, the GOP nominee in the Missouri Senate race, also said he’s not going to drop out—something that may make incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill very happy. (Read more)

Obama Reacts to Akin: The president addressed the rape remark controversy during a surprise news conference Monday, calling Akin’s view “offensive.” The president added: “Rape is rape. And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people and certainly doesn’t make sense to me.” Now there’s a man who gets it. (Read more)

Downplaying the Story: Fox News can’t be bothered to offer substantive coverage of anything that would dare counter its conservative narrative. So it should come as no surprise that the cable news channel tried to stay away from Akin’s controversial comments Monday morning, underreporting the story even as its competitors were leading with it on their news programs. Then again, would you expect anything less from the self-proclaimed (and falsely claimed) “fair and balanced” network? (Read more)

Tax Reluctance Theory: A new idea floating around on why Mitt Romney won’t release more of his tax returns has less to do with finances and more to do with possible law breaking. According to The Guardian, one thought on Romney’s tax records is that they could potentially be hiding voter fraud. Here are the details: “The Romneys, arbitrarily, refuse to disclose a copy of the returns they filed in 2010 or 2009 (for tax years 2009 and 2008)—which, perhaps not coincidentally, bracket the time period when Romney allegedly committed fraud by voting in Massachusetts when he actually resided in California. So here’s the question: Did Romney put his son’s basement’s address on the returns he filed in 2009 and 2010? Or did he truthfully use his real (non-Massachusetts) address, thus implicating himself in voter fraud?” It’s an interesting theory, and one that could have dire consequences for Romney if it turned out to be true. Not to mention how embarrassing it would be to Republicans, who have initiated strict voter ID laws all over the country to crack down on fraud. Awkward! (Read more)

Krugman on Ryan’s Con: In his latest Op-Ed, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman takes on Paul Ryan’s budget plan—or Ryanomics as he calls it—and makes the case that it is simply a “con game.” As Krugman discusses, the alleged deficit hawk’s specific budget proposals that we know about won’t even reduce the deficit—they will make it bigger. The part that will shrink the deficit, however, remains a mystery. Krugman wrote: “What Mr. Ryan actually offers, then, are specific proposals that would sharply increase the deficit, plus an assertion that he has secret tax and spending plans that he refuses to share with us, but which will turn his overall plan into deficit reduction. If this sounds like a joke, that’s because it is.” (Read more)

Video of the Day: With abortion becoming a hot campaign issue again thanks to Akin, BuzzFeed would like to remind us about Romney’s stance on the issue. While attempting to distance the GOP presidential candidate from Akin’s remarks on rape and abortion, the Romney campaign released a statement saying “a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.” But that kind of, sort of, wasn’t entirely the case in 2007. Sure, on his issues page, Romney said he supported exceptions in cases of incest or rape, but by now we know that his position on any issue isn’t exactly concrete. That was exactly the case during this 2007 presidential debate in which Romney said he would be “delighted” to sign a bill banning all abortions.

—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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