Just to carry over from the last post, Todd Akin will stay in his Senate race in Missouri, saying that he’s received “tremendous grassroots support” over the last 48 hours. That will have to suffice for the time being, however. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has been leading efforts to force Akin out, said in a statement about Akin that “if he continues with this misguided campaign, it will be without the support and resources of the NRSC.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, attempting to beat the clock with about five hours to go before the first hurdle of getting Todd Akin off the ballot in Missouri passes, released a list of conservative pundits who have asked Akin to step down. But that’s apparently not enough: Todd Akin says he will stay in the race for Senate in Missouri; he just announced it on Mike Huckabee’s radio show.

There is probably one main reasons why Rep. Todd Akin is still refusing to bow to the collective pressure of the Republican party to drop out of the Missouri Senate race: he thinks he can still win. New polling by PPP shows that is not a completely unreasonable belief for Akin to hold. The poll found that despite his “legitimate rape” comment, Akin still holds a one point lead over Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.

When you put out an ad that has to state clearly, up front, that “rape is an evil act,” I’d say that should be the end of your political career, but in this case, Todd Akin is clearly making a play for hanging in there in Missouri, with just hours before he needs to make a decision on whether to withdraw.

Let’s be clear about this. Akin didn’t misspeak. He meant what he said when he said he thinks you only have a child if deep down you really want to. I know you’ve read his idiocy a hundred times. Read it once more:

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,”

To people here in Missouri, Akin’s comments were not terribly surprising. Akin is a known commodity — known to be highly conservative and well in keeping with a non-trivial slice of the Missouri electorate.

Like Br’er Rabbit telling Br’er Fox not to throw him in the briar patch, Claire McCaskill ran ads on Fox News during the GOP primary fight, calling Akin “too conservative for Missouri”. With an endorsement like that, conservatives in the GOP primary race were happy to hand Akin a victory with 36% of the vote.

Rumors are rampant that Todd Akin will withdraw from the US Senate race in Missouri, but that has not been confirmed at this point. All we know is that he dug himself a larger hole with his appearance on Mike Huckabee’s radio show. Now even the President is helping Mr. Akin decide his fate. [video]

Not only has Akin’s statement about “legitimate rape” not leading to pregnancy put his own election in peril, but several Republicans appears to be scrambling to prevent the problem from metastasizing.

Already the Romney campaign has made multiple statements strongly distancing themselves from Akin. And MA. Sen Brown is calling on Akin to withdraw.

By now you surely know about Missouri Rep. (and US Senate candidate) Todd Akin’s comments to a local news station about “legitimate rape” and how women have a magic pregnancy shutdown switch when in a rape situation. (I believe it activates much like the Wonder Twins, you have to yell out “form a sperm filter!”) Akin has since said that he “misspoke”. But he actually uttered a long-standing belief on the part of the anti-choice movement, simply taking it a bit further and in a less friendly setting than is typical.

Incumbent Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill (D) probably did catch a serious break when Rep. Todd Akin, the weakest of the Republican candidates, managed to narrowly win the primary last week. Polling before the primary showed him doing worse than the other top candidates. Yet even against a flawed challenger McCaskill is in serious trouble. The first public polling since Akin won the Republican nomination finds him with an 11 point lead McCaskill.