Somehow, we all knew that this was a republican campaign ship in search of an iceberg.

Today President Obama was asked about Representative Todd Akin’s comments:

Question: You’re, no doubt, aware of the comments that, uh, Missouri Senate candidate, uh, Republican Todd Akin made on rape and, and abortion. Uh, wondered if you think those, uh, views represent the views of the Republican Party in general. Uh, they’ve been denounced by your own rival and other Republicans. Uh, are they an outlier or are they representative?  

President Obama: Well, let me, let me first of all say, uh, the views expressed were offensive.

Rape is rape.

And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and, uh, slicing, uh, what types of rape, uh, we’re talking about, uh, doesn’t make sense to the American people. Uh, and certainly doesn’t make sense to me.

So, uh, what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, uh, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.

And, uh, so, although these particular comments, uh, have, uh, have led Governor Romney and, uh, other Republicans to, to distance themselves, I think the underlying notion, uh, that we should be making decisions on behalf of women for their healthcare decisions, uh, or qualifying forcible rape versus non-forcible rape, I think those are broader issues, and that is a significant difference, uh, in approach between, uh, between me and the other party.

But I, I, I don’t think that they would agree with, uh, the Senator [Representative] from Missouri in terms of his statement, which was way out there, uh.

Question: Should he drop out of the race [crosstalk], you know?

President Obama: Uh, he was, uh, he was nominated by the Republicans in Missouri. I’ll let them sort that out.

Previously:

Claire McCaskill just got lucky – Akin’s not quitting (August 20, 2012)

Will Todd Akin’s gaffe force the Romney-Ryan campaign to take a firm stand? (August 20, 2012)

GOP furor over Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remark (August 19, 2012)

You know you’re in bad shape when Dana Loesch comes to your defense (August 19, 2012)

We could have told them about Todd Akin (August 19, 2012)

Todd Akin: “legitimate” rape victims don’t get pregnant (August 19, 2012)