If he’s still in the race on September 25, his name will be on the ballot in November. Tick tock.

KOMU-TV in Columbia says it received half of the payment for an ad buy, and when it didn’t get the other half, it cancelled the rest of the ads. The station says its confirmed that other stations from St. Louis to Kansas City have been put in the same position…

An Akin spokesman told KOMU that it was a scheduling mistake and the final portion of their payments is coming in the mail, so to speak.

According to WaPo, he’s raised $400,000 since August 19 while McCaskill is sitting on millions in the bank. Says one Missouri GOP strategist not associated with the campaign, “The only way he gets out is if his wife, Lulli, is either convinced they have no money and will not get any, or some of his core supporters suggest Todd get out.” Makes me wonder if McCaskill will actually ease off on her own ads until Sept. 25 lest she inadvertently remind Akin that he’ll be swamped down the stretch. Why scare him off?

Below you’ll find one that she just put out. Apart from using the color blue for the little image of Missouri at the end, you’d never know that she’s a Democrat who endorsed Obama earlier than virtually anyone else in the Senate in 2008 and cast the 60th vote for his signature boondoggle. On the contrary, she sounds like a budget-cappin’, regulation-slashin’, earmark-bannin’ small-government independent dream. Maybe you should run on the libertarian ticket, Claire. Exit question: Is Karl Rove’s dumb joke about having Akin taken out going to end up keeping this guy in the race? It’s become a rallying point for pro-Akin, anti-establishment forces, including Phyllis Schlafly’s group — even though, according to BuzzFeed, Schlafly privately urged Akin to drop out of the race herself.