By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
The Ashley Todd incident was a sad stunt by a young woman who obviously needs some help.
That's all.
The misguided actions of one volunteer aren't a reflection on John McCain or his campaign. If Todd had been attacked by an Obama-loving thug, as she falsely said, the attacker wouldn't have been a stand-in for Barack Obama or his campaign.
People make up crimes. Remember the runaway bride, who said she was kidnapped? It happens here in Kansas City from time to time. The fact that Todd used the campaign as a backdrop doesn't make her pathetic story a particularly newsworthy event.
Apparently, some people think otherwise. Here's a post from John Moody, the executive VP of Fox News, that strikes me as completely over the top:
It had to happen.
Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white woman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says there was a political motive for it.
Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white volunteer for John McCain’s presidential campaign, says she was mugged at an ATM machine in Pittsburgh (my hometown) by a big black man. She further says he threw her down, then disfigured her by carving the letter “B” into her face with a sharp implement when he saw that she supported McCain, not Barack Obama.
Part of the appeal of, and the unspoken tension behind, Senator Obama’s campaign is his transformational status as the first African-American to win a major party’s presidential nomination.
That does not mean that he has erased the mutual distrust between black and white Americans, and this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.
If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.
For Pittsburgh, a city that has done so much to shape American history over the centuries, another moment of truth is at hand.
Forever linked to race-baiting? Please.
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Ms. Todd was kicked out of a Ron Paul group in Texas
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
'In March, Ms. Todd was asked to leave a grass-roots group of Ron Paul supporters in Brazos County, Texas, group leader Dustan Costine said. He said Ms. Todd posed as a supporter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and called the local Republican committee seeking information about its campaign strategies.
"She would call the opposing campaign and pretend she was on their campaign to get information," Mr. Costine said last night. "We had to remove her because of the tactics she displayed. After that we had nothing to do with her."
About a month earlier, he said, Ms. Todd sent an e-mail to the Ron Paul group saying her tires were slashed and that campaign paraphernalia had been stolen from her car because she supported Mr. Paul.
"She's the type of person who wants to be recognized," Mr. Costine said.'
Ashley Todd needs serious help...
Ashley Todd has some serious mental problems.
Not for one minute did I believe her story.
First off...the B was backwards, as if done in a mirror.
The time sequence didn't work out, the story kept changing and then there were the eyes. They were not the eyes of someone who had been robbed, beating, sexually molested, gone unconscious and had her face carved on. They were the eyes of someone glad to look in the lens of a camera and see her self.
While working in mainstream America, managers were taught that when an employee reports a robbery and it is an inside job...they usually blame the race opposite them. Of course this was a much better opportunity and better alternatives to blame such a horrific crime on a black man.
I would not put the fact that the McCain camp did not milk that story for all that it was worth. I do hope that is as far as it went.
Here is my post of the aftermath:
http://babyboomeradvisorclub.com/mccain-volunteer-lied-about-being-mugged-by-black-man/
Southern smiles and world peace,
Sharon/BabyBoomerQueen
http://www.BabyBoomerAdvisorClub.com
"Race Baiting 101"
The McCain campaign may not have orchestrated the Todd affair but they aided and abetted the spread of this attack rumor. They notified their sycophants in talk radio/television giving them an elaborate fabrication of the police report to spread to their audiences. McCain and Palin publicly contacted the Todd family to offer their support for the harm she supposedly suffered. The truth has now come out but I have yet to hear an apology from anybody who had a hand in its dissemination.
Rumors, unfortunately, have a life of their own. Those who already believe that Barack Obama is an Arab, Muslim, terrorist, socialist, elitist can easily add asault to his list of crimes. The old John McCain would have denounced this type of race-baiting with vigor and fired everybody on his staff who played a role in it. The new John McCain has maintained his silence.
Hiding from the truth
Ashley Todd herself made this both a political and racial stunt by identifying her "attacker" as both a black man and Barack Obama supporter. This is amidst incidents of racial and cultural points of contention regarding Barack Obama originating from McCain supporters. To say that Ashley Todd's activities aren't endemic of many of McCain's supporters is false in the least and insulting at its worst. This is not to say that McCain himself is racist, or the members of his official campaign are racist. I'm a Barack Obama supporter myself, and I feel sorry for McCain, because this unfortunate label will be attached to him in the annals of history unfairly.
That being said the sooner that we allow racial tensions to come to light, to realize our discomfort, and then excise it, the sooner we will surpass this ridiculous behavior. Hiding from the truth will only allow it to fester and eventually consume us.