Mitt Romney has called for "legitimate rape" proponent Todd Akin to withdraw from the Missouri Senate race. Romney has thereby embarked on a vital test of his leadership skills - after all, if Romney can't negotiate a withdrawal from an irreparably damaged member of his own political party, he can hardly be expected to deal with challenges ranging from intransigent foreign leaders to right-wing rebellions in Congress. So far, however, Romney is failing this test, and badly.
By now everyone is familiar with with the Todd Akin "legitimate rape" controversy - Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin sending a ray of hope to rapists everywhere by assuring them that in cases of "legitimate rape" the woman's body has ways of "shutting down" so that the rape does not lead to pregnancy. Sadly, this is the opposite of what something called "actual science" demonstrates, which is that women who are raped are more likely to get pregnant than women who engage in consensual sex. But it is nevertheless a popular myth in right-wing circles,
Despite the fact that running mate Paul Ryan shares Akin's dream of changing the law to strip abortion rights and force as many women as possible to bear the children of their rapists, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney has called for Akin to withdraw from the Senate race.
Make no mistake, this is a leadership test for Mitt Romney. Romney is now the head of his party, and has claimed the mantle of responsibility for its fortunes. Todd Akin has become a poison pill for the party, likely to lose a key Senate seat and drag down other Republicans in other races. If, by some unfathomable turn of events, Akin should win, he will be a perpetual source of discomfort for his fellow Senate Republicans, who will be loathe to be tied to the "legitimate rape" Senator as they ply their legislative trade and cast their votes. For the sake of the party, Akin must withdraw, and facilitating this outcome is Romney's job - for Romney has thrown himself into the cause by calling for this result, and indeed, his own electoral prospects may well count on it.
We all know that the job of the President is one that requires constant negotiation, cajoling, and convincing to make people with strong egos and competing interests move towards results that benefit the nation. And this is exactly such a situation that Romney has stepped right in the middle of, exactly such a test. Todd Akin is no foreign government leader, no representative of a group opposed to Romney's interests; he is Romney's fellow party member, in many respects Romney's ideological mate, someone who Romney should easily be able to sway, if he possesses leadership skills that are up to the task. So let us identify this test for is exactly what it is. If Romney is truly a leader, truly up to the task of being President of the United States, then it should be no problem for him to perform the one relatively minuscule show of leadership of convincing Todd Akin to withdraw from the race, as he has already called for.
The test is underway; and so far, Romney is failing to an embarrassing degree.