Senior Republicans and leading pundits quickly declared Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments a mortal blow to his Senate candidacy, writing off the conservative congressman's campaign in one of the country's most important races.

But a month after his comments set the political world on fire, there's a different feeling on the ground here among operatives, voters, activists and officials in both parties: Akin can still win.

Akin's strategy rests on a big push to turn out the base in areas like conservative southwestern Missouri while stemming losses in Democratic-friendly bastions, such as the St. Louis region - all the while waging a pressure campaign on Republicans in Washington to send national money into a tightly contested race. It's a strategy intended to rehab his badly bruised image - much of it stemming from sharp criticism from within his own party.

The devoutly religious Presbyterian is making an active push to court evangelical voters, including here in Rush Limbaugh's hometown, where he delivered an emotional appeal - holding back tears at times - to several dozen social conservatives so he can launch a grass-roots campaign to bring out like-minded voters to the polls.