Speaking at a press conference this evening, Rep. Todd Akin, the embattled Senate candidate from Missouri, refused to bow to pressure from nearly ever major figure on the Right and stated that he's remaining in the race against Sen. Claire McCaskill. He said:
“Apparently, there are some people who are having trouble understanding out message, and I’d like to be clear on that today: we’re going to be here through the November election, and we’re going to be here to win.”
He then gave a short statement hitting McCaskill for her support of policies that have left us languishing in the economic doldrums. Considering, however, that she's one of pretty much three people who have urged him to stay in the race -- the other two being liberal filmmaker Michael Moore and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican -- it seems odd that he'd throw one of his only allies under the bus like that.
Apparently, he's stubborn enough -- and perhaps found some friends with money -- to stay in the race, even after scores of fellow Republicans (including both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan) urged him to drop out, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Crossroads GPS vowed to withdraw funding from his campaign. We shall see where this race goes, and whether he manages to redeem himself in a race where he could've won, if only he kept his mouth shut.