Will Todd Akin drop out, after all?

Four days after his "legitimate rape" super-gaffe, the GOP Senate candidate's poll numbers are tanking. Will he reconsider his decision to stay in the race?

Rep. Todd Akin
(Image credit: AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

It didn't seem possible, but embattled Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin's week just got worse. Before the backlash over his ill-informed claim that "legitimate rape" rarely causes pregnancy (because women's bodies "shut the whole thing down"), some polls showed him leading the notably vulnerable incumbent, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). Now, according to GOP-leaning pollster Rasmussen, McCaskill has surged to a 10-point lead, with 48 percent support among Missourians to Akin's 38 percent. Two out of three voters say they have an unfavorable opinion of him. Team Akin's response: If McCaskill can't crack 50 percent after all of the negative publicity Akin has received, maybe she should bow out. Akin rejected calls from GOP leaders to quit, but, saying he doesn't "know the future," appeared open to leaving the race later. He can do so, with a judge's permission, as late as Sept. 25. Is there still a chance he'll drop out?

He might just get the message: There are whispers that Akin is waiting to see if "a huge groundswell of support" from social conservatives will save him, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. Well, it's not happening. He has raised about $25,000 in an online push, but his "fable of the Magic Uterus" cost him $5 million in GOP money. Though he was vowing to fight to the end when the scandal first broke, lately Akin has been "notably noncommittal about staying in the race." Maybe (just maybe) he'll throw in the towel, after all.

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