“Women, they argue, won’t connect Akin to the rest of the GOP.

“I don’t think women are going to think that this person who clearly had an outrageous interview is the party,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said on CNN’ Thursday morning. Women are concerned about the economy, she said.

Hutchison did admit that Akin’s comments were a poorly timed “diversion” from the issues the party should be addressing.

The outgoing Texas senator also argued that the party platform drafted this week in Tampa, which calls for an abortion ban without exceptions for rape and incest, likewise would not alienate women. “I don’t think that anything that was said in the platform is against the focus on protecting life whenever possible,” she said. “And I think most people agree with that.”

Paul Ryan, who has been forced to answer questions about his own opposition to rape and incest exemptions this week, similarly suggested that that fallout over Akin wouldn’t ultimately harm the party.

“And I don’t think [women] going to take the bait of all these distractions that the president is trying to throw at them.”

Other Republicans simply hope that abortion isn’t important enough to women to cost them votes.”