Politicians who are legitimately stupid rarely get elected.

[monster]

Maybe he does really believe that's possible. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful thing paving the way for all sorts of strange beliefs to develop. He knows abortion is bad. He knows rape is bad. He knows that people cite rape as the most legitimate reason for abortion. So he needs to use the word legitimate and he needs to address the what if a pregnancy results from rape. Easiest option is Denial. Pretend that it doesn't. We all know humans are naturally wired for Denial. it's a great self-defence mechanism. Deny the problem exists, deny abortion is the only solution.

The stupidity perhaps lies in the not questioning/checking the soundnes of his beliefs once in a while. But so few people do that, and they can't all be stupid. Can they?

Or maybe he doesn't believe it and it's just a political maneuver. Well that's stupid too because the obvious answer would have been to get all religious about it. He's not sucking up to the people who support abortion in case of rape, he's sucking up to the extreme pro-lifers, so why not just go the religous route? works for the creationists.

But then, I think a lot of people are pretty stupid and it generally causes trouble for me when I say so, especially if I don't "know them in real life" So I now tend to just keep it shut and stay away from them, because I have a low tolerance for stupid. I may even have a stupid allergy.