Mitt Romney’s Crack Is Akin

The fact that Mitt Romney is running away from Todd Akin in mortal terror exposes a fissure between New England Republicans and Red Meat Republicans. This is at the Daily Beast:

[T]he rush to reject [Todd] Akin is infuriating the anti-abortion movement, which sees it as a further sign of Romney’s weak commitment to social conservatism. “For goodness’s sake, the guy won’t defend a chicken sandwich, let alone his own Senate candidate,” says conservative radio host Steve Deace, who recently co-wrote a book, We Won’t Get Fooled Again: Where the Christian Right Went Wrong and How to Make America Right Again, arguing that social conservatives have been shafted by the GOP. . . .

“The Romney-Ryan ticket putting out a statement on Monday that said, ‘Hey, if you’re raped, you can kill your kid if you want,’ that went over like a fart in church,” says Deace.

It will be interesting to see how Mitt Romney squares this circle; it’s a test of leadership for him. How does he find his way to the center, where most independent women voters are, without alienating fundamentalists by dissing their rigid and absolutist “No turning back” anti-abortion narrative?

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Bunyan’s map image below is from here. Romney appears to be stalled at Doubting Castle, the place no true enthusiast of the contemporary Republican Party is permitted to dwell for long.