Todd Akin's huge lady problem? That's just 'optics.'

Todd Akin and the women who support him. Todd Akin may have created for himself a little problem with the lady voters, after his insistence that women have magical lady parts that can detect rape sperm and "shut that whole thing down" to prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."

And by "may have created," of course, we're being generous because Sen. Claire McCaskill has a nearly 20-point lead with women now, which didn't exist before Akin decided to drop his science knowledge on the world.

But no worries, says Akin's campaign. Rebecca Berg at Buzzfeed reports:

[O]ne Republican strategist with ties to the campaign told BuzzFeed, the campaign isn't worried and thinks the current gender gap in the polls is about what it would have been anyway.

"It's not as overwhelming as you would think," the strategist said, citing internal polling. "It looks like a bigger optics problem."

The strategist added, "It's not a difference-making thing right now."

Right. That huge lead McCaskill opened with women voters doesn't make a difference; it's just an "optics problem."

And besides:

Rick Tyler, a spokesperson for Akin's campaign, said female voters in Missouri "understand that Todd misspeaking and apologizing for it does not trump" McCaskill's voting record on issues including the Affordable Care Act and the stimulus, both of which she supported.

See? Those women voters understand that when Todd Akin says profoundly stupid and inaccurate things to justify denying health care to women, McCaskill is worse because she actually wants to provide health care to women, and what kind of woman (except for all those women who prefer McCaskill) could possibly want that? Certainly not the tiny but fierce army of women Akin has managed to pull together to insist that they think Akin's vow to take away their rights is just hunky dory:

Akin has attracted a small but determined band of female supporters who believe they can stem the tide of resentment against him. Missouri Women Standing with Todd Akin (MWSTA) began with eight women in a suburban living room a month ago, and launched last Tuesday with a rally in Chesterfield in Akin's St Louis congressional district, attended by 300 people. [...]

Asked what she thought about the science behind Akin's comments over a rape victim shutting down a potential pregnancy, [Akin supporter Kelly] Burrell said: "I'm not a scientist, but there are a lot of contradictions. There was a time in the world when scientist thought the world was flat. I don't buy into science."

So there ya go. While Akin is successfully alienating most of the women in Missouri, at least he's got his 300 MWSTAs who don't buy into science and think it's just grand to support a guy who wants to take away their rights.

If you do "buy into science" and would like to see your elected officials spend time on things other than legislating your magic lady parts and then pretending your crazy ideas are just unfortunate incidents of "misspeaking," help send more, better women to Congress.

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