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" TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 If there&amp;#039;s any one group of Republicans that screwed up this convention before it started, it&amp;#039;s the Republicans from the state of Missouri. With an opportunity to dispatch Claire McCaskill from the United States Senate, the Missouri Republicans found themselves with a three-way field in their senatorial primary. There was Sarah Steelman, the young and charismatic state treasurer who got the endorsement of Sarah Palin, possibly because Palin read the name quickly and thought she was endorsing herself. There was John Brunner, one of those self-financed millionnaire candidates who mistook his bank balance for his IQ. And there was Congressman Todd Akin, a very conservative fellow with a penchant for sticking his nose in the business of other people&amp;#039;s ladyparts. Everyone in Missouri agreed that Akin was the weaker candidate, including McCaskill, who arranged for the Democratic party to produce television ads endorsing Akin. To the shock of everyone, Akin snuck through on Election Day. Then, of course, he arranged to make himself into a synonym for the rest of his life. In a local TV interview, Akin famously explained that, in what he called a &amp;quot;legitimate rape,&amp;quot; a woman&amp;#039;s body produces secret secretions that prevent conception and that, therefore, the exception that anti-choice laws grant to rape victims is largely moot, because of Dr. Akin&amp;#039;s Magical Lady Serums. This became a Thing, and then a Much Bigger Thing when it became obvious that most of his party feels the same way, when the national platform endorsed language similar to Akin&amp;#039;s, and when it was discovered that once, in his off-hours from engaging in zombie-eyed granny-starving, Paul Ryan had co-sponsored a bill to this effect with Akin himself. This forced the Republican ticket to spend the two weeks before its convention talking about abortion, which it only likes to talk about with the voices in its head, and it forced Willard Romney to change his position on the issue for the 238th time in his long career of ducking the whole mess entirely. A lot of important Republicans, and self-important conservative pundits, begged Akin to drop out. He has declined. But, down in the Missouri delegation here, which is tucked away in a corner, where a lot of people hope nobody notices that not many of them are wearing Todd Akin buttons.  Scott Clark is. Scott Clark is wearing two of them. Scott Clark is also wearing an Uncle Sam hat, but that&amp;#039;s pretty much beside the point. Scott Clark is gently, quietly fed up with all the jokes and the Washington bigfeet who keep telling Akin to give up his campaign and, by implication, keep asking him and his fellow Missouri Republicans why they invited the skunk to the garden party. &amp;quot;I think there are some people who have gone on TV recently and made some remarks, but over 200,000 Missourians voted for his candidacy,&amp;quot; said Clark, who is the recorder of deeds in Cape Girardeau, the hometown of Rush Limbaugh, and, presumably, other people who have not ruined American discourse. &amp;quot;If he feels he should need to get out of the primary, there are mechanisms in place. But it is up to the nominee at this point. &amp;quot;I mean, there are mixed feelings on all sides. Certainly, everybody agrees that it was a statement that was wrong. He made an apology. Some have accepted that apology. Some haven&amp;#039;t come around to that yet. Missourians like to do our business, and we don&amp;#039;t appreciate when people from outside of the state force their opinions on us. Missourians can formulate their own opinions. It was between Todd and Missourians as to what Todd will do.&amp;quot; Todd Akin is not here because the people running this puppet show don&amp;#039;t want to answer the questions that would follow him into the hall where, on Tuesday, with Bob McDonnell, the famous transvaginalist governor of Virginia grinning from the podium, the delegates approved a platform that says, in part, the following: &amp;quot;...we assert that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life that cannot be infringed.&amp;quot; Period. No exceptions. Every delegate who stood and cheered that platform should walk over to the dim little corner where Missouri is and shake Scott Clark&amp;#039;s hand. He&amp;#039;s got the guts to wear the button of the man who got there before the rest of them did. FOLLOW MORE LIVE COVERAGE FROM TAMPA ALL WEEK LONG RIGHT HERE AND WITH @ESQPOLITICS ON TWITTER &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15502/todd-akin-convention-12152497/>