[Butin the waning days of this tight race, which may decide which party controls the Senate, Mr. Akin is traveling the state exchanging handshakes and hugs with supporters. He appears to be unperturbed by his status as a political outcast and is hoping to show that he is not the extremist that many people believe him to be. ]
By John Eligon
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Mr.
Akin, a six-term Republican congressman who is hoping to unseat Ms. McCaskill
in the race for Senate in Missouri, paused midsentence, pointed to the man and,
with a mischievous grin, said: “I don’t use that word ‘dog’ anymore. It gets me
in trouble.”
Hinting
at the recent uproar over a remark in which he compared Ms. McCaskill’s actions to those of a dog,
Mr. Akin was showing off a persona that he has embraced on the campaign trail:
folksy and playful, careful yet still edgy.
With
just two words — “legitimate rape” — uttered in a television interview that was
broadcast in August, Mr. Akin lost his advantage in the race, was abandoned by
his own party leaders and caricatured by Democrats as a general in the so-called
Republican war on women.
But
in the waning days of this tight race, which may decide which party controls
the Senate, Mr. Akin is traveling the state exchanging handshakes and hugs with
supporters. He appears to be unperturbed by his status as a political outcast
and is hoping to show that he is not the extremist that many people believe him
to be.
This
is a softer and less confrontational Mr. Akin than what most of the country has
seen.
Rape
and abortion are subjects he rarely brings up. (He was defending his
no-exceptions opposition to abortion when he got in trouble for saying that
women’s bodies could automatically prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate
rape.”) Gone is his us-versus-the-establishment language. And while he
addresses some of his more incendiary remarks head on — like his statement
equating federal student loans to Stage 3
cancer — he tends to stick with more rehearsed themes that appeal to his
conservative base: less government, more freedom and God.
A
poll released on Saturday suggested that his strategy might be working. The
survey, conducted by Mason Dixon for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, News 4 in St.
Louis and The Kansas City Star, showed the race to be essentially tied,
with Ms. McCaskill holding an edge, 45 percent to 43 percent. The poll had a
margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Mr.
Akin fosters the “aw shucks” demeanor of the Midwest, drawing out his words
like an elementary school teacher. He uses jokes to break the ice — “I’m
willing to take a few questions as long as they’re not real hard,” he told one
audience. He often invokes patriotic history, telling stories of George
Washington, Patrick Henry and Thomas A. Edison. He relishes symbolism and told
a group in Ava, Mo., about a bald eagle he saw on the drive to meet them. “Does
the eagle remind you of freedom?” he cried.
“Yeah!”
they shouted back.
Even
staunch conservatives who almost certainly will vote for Mr. Akin want to meet
him in person to reassure themselves of their decision.
“I
thought I better look at him to see if he’s as crazy as they think he is,” said
Dannie Thompson, 55, a City Council member in Salisbury, Mo., who first met Mr.
Akin on Wednesday at a dinner at a country-style restaurant in nearby Moberly.
Mr.
Thompson was smitten. Mr. Akin was friendly and approachable, Mr. Thompson
said, took interest in what he had to say and explained himself well.
“He
wasn’t trying to use college words to a hillbilly like me,” Mr. Thompson said.
Mr.
Akin went from table to table to greet people. He excused himself for reaching
over a woman and then turned to her and offered his hand. “Hi, Bonnie,” he
said. “Nice to see ya.”
During
his speech, the first noticeable reaction from the crowd came as he spoke about
what he thought was the secret to America’s greatness, increasing his cadence
and pointing a finger in the air.
“I
believe that secret really starts with a visionary idea that there is a creator
— ”
“Amen,”
a woman interjected.
“—
that blessed us with life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Mr.
Akin does not speak from a script. But he has taught himself to be disciplined
when he talks.
“I’m
trying to be pretty careful in choosing my words, you can bet that’s true,” he
said in an interview.
Mr.
Akin begins almost every speech by reminding people that Ms. McCaskill was an
early supporter of Mr. Obama during his first presidential run. He says she
voted most of the time for legislation that Mr. Obama supported, and he
highlights her support for the health care law.
In a state where the president’s poll numbers have sagged, Mr.
Akin’s best path to victory might be to make sure that Mitt Romney’s supporters
also check his name on the ballot.
He
gets crowds most riled up when he talks of the millions of dollars in federal
subsidies received by housing companies tied to Ms. McCaskill’s husband, or of
the sexual harassment lawsuit pending against one of her husband’s companies.
“That’s
why you see the magician trick,” he told a group of mostly older people in
Hannibal, twiddling his right hand next to his face while reaching down with
his left. “Look over here while I put this hand in your wallet.”
Ms.
McCaskill’s campaign has denied any wrongdoing and condemned the attacks. It
has noted that the senator has voted against some of the spending bills
involved, and that her husband’s companies were but a handful of thousands that
received the financing, which was used for maintenance at affordable housing
developments. The lawsuit is against an apartment complex in Springfield, Ill.,
where neither Ms. McCaskill nor her husband, whose company owns the complex,
play a role.
Caitlin
Legacki, a spokeswoman for Ms. McCaskill, said it was “unfortunate that his
campaign has taken such a desperate tone and have leveled such inaccurate
personal attacks.”
In
turn, Mr. Akin has accused his opponent of using similar tactics. Beyond his
controversial statements, he has been peppered with questions about his
numerous arrests during anti-abortion protests decades ago. The McCaskill campaign’s
advertising, Mr. Akin said, “is trying to make me look like some kind of a
weirdo or something.”
Mr.
Akin sometimes finds himself handling the delicate balance of distancing
himself from the fringe views of some of his supporters without dismissing
them.
In
Moberly, a woman asked, “With all the unconstitutional things that Obama is
doing,” like “being kind to our enemies and unkind to our friends, what’s
stopping Congress from impeaching this man?”
“That’s
a good question,” Mr. Akin said hesitantly. “Good question. We’ve asked that
question.”
He
discussed the difficulties in impeaching a president — accusations of high
crimes and misdemeanors, and at least 67 votes in the Senate — and then shifted
toward a different way to drive Mr. Obama out of the Oval Office.
“Two
weeks from now,” he said, referring to Election Day, “that’s the preferred
solution to that problem.”
