Tea partiers in trouble

>>> welcome back to "the ed show." should have been an easy win for the gop , but remarks made by republican indiana senate candidate richard mourdock about rape victims and abortions are taking their toll. the latest polling shows democrat joe donley ahead by double digits. the washington post changing the race from tossup to leading democratic. nebraska was supposed to be in for the bag for the republicans as well, but now tea party favorite deb fisher who holds the same view as mourdock, on abortion, is losing ground to her democratic opponent, former senator bob kerrey . kerry also got a boost from senator chuck hagel , a republican. meanwhile, republicans who had rejected todd akin in missouri after his comments about legitimate rape are now having second thoughts. national republicans won't say whether they're injected funds into missouri , but suddenly akin received more than $2 million in the final days of the campaign. but the extremism is taking its toll on other high profile races in the house. joe walsh in illinois seems to be toast. polls are tightening for steve king in iowa. things are not looking real good for congressman alan west in florida. his republican opponent in the primary just endorsed the democrat in the race. michele bachmann is locked in a tight race against democratic challenger jim graves. the right wing's war on women came up in the last debate. bachmann was asked about richard mourdock 's remarks. bachmann wouldn't tell voters where she stood, dodging questions about abortion, access for rape victims.

>> you heard what richard mourdock said and you know that has been controversial. god intended this to happen if a fetus results a consequence of that rape. i want to know if you agree with that.

>> what i agree with is i'm 100% pro-life and i agree with the position of the catholic church on this issue.

>> let's bring in kelly goth, political correspondent for theroot.com and democratic strategist chris kafinis. the war on women. these remarks by mourdock continued to erode away. how big of an impact is this going to have on these races?

>> huge. it already is, right? and i think the way i look at this, ed, is the other perspective of the gop was that this election cycle was essentially about three issues. the economy, the economy, the economy. and that is partially true, right? but you can be the brightest economic business mind on the planet and if you run for office and you say i kick puppies in my spare time , i like adolf hitler , i hate black people , people aren't going to vote for you. i think what a lost the men in the gop underestimated is in the eyes of a lot of americans, making crazy insulting comments about rape falls along those lines and they won't for candidates even if the economy is the number one issue and they're making these crazy comments.

>> michele bachmann had a hard time splitting away from richard mourdock 's comments.

>> because she agrees with him but doesn't want to say that out loud because she sees what happens when you say that out loud. they can't get away from this issue. it has become the albatross around the neck of every republican candidate and that's what we're seeing. voters don't compare for hypocrisy. one republican congressman we didn't hear mentioned is scott dedarlis. i may be mispronouncing his name, the pro-life tea party candidate caught on tape pressuring his girlfriend to get an abortion, right? meanwhile, he's trying to make it the procedure illegal for rape victims. so voters don't care for this sort of nonsense and that's what we're seeing. his race is tightening. he's an incumbent and his race is tightening as well.

>> it is. chris , it is interesting that in different parts of the country, the most aggressive people on the president are having trouble winning re-election. west in florida. king in iowa. walsh in illinois. and bachmann , of course, is in a tight race in minnesota. what are we seeing here?

>> well, i think what you're seeing is this kind of growing, you know, desire among the american people to move away from basically low torch politics. and there is -- i think there is something that has been happening new in two cycles. in particular in the senate races. there were three races last cycle during the midterms, colorado, delaware and nevada, where republicans arguably could have won with better, more reasonable candidates. and they didn't because these were tea party extremists and they blew themselves up. and now you have two races right now, the republicans, who are going to win. missouri and indiana, which they're not going to win. that's five races now over two cycles. and it is amazing to me that they have not got this message. and if they lose, and i think they're going to lose on, you know, on tuesday night, the presidential election , what is going to be amazing about this, they're going to take the lesson away from this that they didn't have a candidate who was conservative enough both in terms of the top ballot, all the way down. they just have not learned the lesson that the country is not where they are, especially on these social issues. gay marriage , immigration, choice, the country is moving in a more moderate direction and they keep trying to move this country into a far extreme direction, it is not going to happen.

>> president obama has an ad for connectic connecticut's chris murphy . is the race closer?

>> i think it is closer. i think what will happen in connecticut as well as in massachusetts, you know, these senate races, you know, it is not just in indiana and missouri where these candidates have hurt themselves and hurt the republican party . these have a hangover effect. and i think because, you know, a lot of moderate voters, one democratic base voters get mobilized, moderate alienated. that'sy thi that's why i think senator brown will lose that seat.

>> is barack obama a pretty good guy to talk about on the campaign trail with the job growth and a good report that just came out on friday today?

>> depends where you are. i say in a lot of places he's much better to have on the campaign trail than he probably was a month or two ago, right? because everyone likes to have a good jobs news but particularly when you're talking about places like ohio, and wisconsin, you know, that's -- he's more, i think, welcome there than he would have been beforehand. so it certainly is not bad news, put it that way.

>> it is not bad news. it would seem to me that that's what people would be talking about in a big way. kelly, thank you for joining us. chris , good to have you on tonight. thanks so much.

>>> coming up, you won't believe what steve dushy has to say about tonight's hurricane sandy relief benefit concert. stay tuned.