Tom Smith is challenging Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey this year, and he is going to lose. He trails by close to 20 percentage points in the polls. An interview with Mark Scolforo of the Associated Press provides an indication why that might be.

Scolforo: How would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, God forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own will? Do you have a way to explain that?

Smith: I lived something similar to that with my own family. She chose life, and I commend her for that. She knew my views. But, fortunately for me, I didn’t have to.. she chose they way I thought. No don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t rape.

Scolforo: Similar how?

Smith: Uh, having a baby out of wedlock.

Scolforo: That’s similar to rape?

Smith: No, no, no, but… put yourself in a father’s situation, yes. I mean it is similar. But, back to the original, I’m pro-life, period.

This kind of thinking is truly terrifying. It is medieval-like in its philosophy. Rape is a violent crime. It is one of the detestable criminal acts around. Yet Smith, as a father, has the same feelings if his daughter gets pregnant from rape than from a loving relationship.

If this isn’t blame the woman mentality, then what is? Because his daughter is not married, Smith sees no difference between a consensual act and a violent one. It sounds as if he would prefer his daughter to have been raped as long as she did not pregnant than to have sex outside marriage and get pregnant.

Whichever the situation, Smith places himself almost as a victim in this situation: “[P]ut yourself in a father’s situation, yes. It is similar.”

Hardly. No man with an ounce of fathering skills would feel the two are the same.