A Risky Strategy for Democrats

It's being reported that the Democrats are intending to exploit Todd Akin's deplorable comments and turn their convention into a pro-abortion celebration.

You know what? I hope they do it. The entire Republican Party -- from Mitt Romney to every living Republican US Senator from Missouri to conservative pundits -- has denounced Akin's comments and asked him to leave the race. Good luck tarring all the GOP with the Akin brush.

What's more, how out of touch do you have to be -- in a terrible economy like this one -- to think abortion is what's on most people's minds? Talk about creating a sideshow to try to hide the manifest failures of President Obama . . . the guy, don't forget, who had no problem opposing the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. In fact, he's the perfect analogue on the other side to Todd Akin. If Akin is a pro-life extremist, Obama certainly is a pro-choice one.

Finally, if Democrats assume this will be a helpful strategy, especially with women, they may want to reexamine the polling data. More women are pro-life than pro-choice, according to a Gallup May 2012 poll. Same for men. Oh, and non-white Americans are even more pro-life than white ones.

Obviously, this is an effort to mobilize otherwise disengaged liberals to get to the polls. But driven by the pro-abortion extremists in the Democrat party, their convention may end up looking comically unsuited to serious times and a bad economy: Glorifying abortion -- a practice that regular Americans mostly deplore, even if they believe it should be legal -- and focusing on it to the exclusion of issues voters really care about.