Ashley Todd's America - Progress Pond

More details have now come to light about the disturbing and disgusting hoax Ashley Todd perpetrated upon America on Thursday and Friday.

Most disturbing are new facts that the McSame campaign did indeed push this story on the media in an effort to harm Obama.

A spokesman for the McCain campaign gave reporters an inflammatory version of Thursday’s hoax story about a McCain volunteer being attacked by a man who carved a “B” into her face, Pittsburgh’s KDKA reported.

Long before any facts about the Ashley Todd case had been established, McCain’s Pennsylvania campaign communications director told reporters the alleged attacker had told the woman, “You’re with the McCain campaign? I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

The Drudge Report featured a teased story about the incident before any details about it were released. That caused KDKA reporters to contact the spokesman, confirmed as Peter Feldman.

Feldman’s presumptuous claims are “significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time,” an election blog at Talking Points Memo reported.

The story could deal a sharp blow to the McCain campaign, which might be seen as having pushed an incendiary story that had no basis in fact and that nearly blew up into a “national incident,” said Pittsburgh Police Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant, reported KWTX News.

Obama’s campaign has already privately accused the McCain camp of promoting a racially-charged version of the story.

Let’s honestly talk about what this means. Despite Pittsburgh cops (and any rational, intelligent human being’s reasonable assumption for that matter) believing that the reversely drawn B on her cheek was an obvious sign of a self-inflicted wound and a hoax, and having strong reason to doubt her story, the McSame camp attributed one of Ashley Todd’s completely fabricated quotes to the media in an effort to score damage against Barack Obama and try to scare the crap out of (or seriously anger) white people across America.

Let’s think about what might have happened if Ashley Todd hadn’t confessed until, say, after Election Day, and she had been a slightly more intelligent liar. You would have had a nationalized incident that would have racially divided this country 11 days before the election. You would have massive manhunt in western PA, northern WV, eastern Ohio. It would be the top story in the news: White female McSame supporter attacked by black male Obama supporter! There would SURELY be reprisals against black folk in the area.

We’d stop talking about the issues, of course. We’d be talking about race. This would be the game changer McSame would have needed in PA and OH to win those states, and we’d have Ashley’s face on McSame ads across the country. This election would no longer be about the economy, or Iraq, or any of the issues.

It would be an election solely about race. You don’t think it would happen? McSame would make it happen. Joe the Plumber would give way to Ashley the Campaign Worker, I guarantee it. Obama’s poll numbers would drop like a stone, it would be Obama’s Willie Horton moment writ large, and there’s a fair chance that it would have cost Obama the election.

But maybe that was the goddamn point. Maybe this was an effort to cost Obama Pennsylvania and Ohio, possibly North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida too. The McSame campaign’s Pennsylvania folks were more than eager to pin this all on the phantom black man.

In a real sense, America got lucky. It got lucky because there were so many holes in Ashley Todd’s story she had no choice but to recant her story after only 48 hours. If she had been craftier, it’s possible that right now we’d be watching the end of Barack Obama’s presidential run, and watch a wave of righteous indignation based on a total lie sweep McSame into office, in a worst case scenario.

Here’s the most chilling part.

This time we got lucky.

There will be other times. You can count on that. I’ve given McSame the benefit of the doubt because he has served his country. He did suffer for serving his country. He did survive multiple bouts with cancer. But the sick, disgusting story of Ashley Todd, and what it could have meant to this country, what it could have done to throw race relations in this country back fifty, a hundred years, this is the direct result of the honorless, race-baiting, lowest common denominator, win at all costs strategy that has come from the top of the McSame/Palin campaign. It has come from the top of the GOP.

This is what the Republican Party has been reduced to now, a cariacture of sleaze, corruption, and pure hatred. My nightmares feature folks who look like me, getting lynched, in America, in 2008, because of Ashley Todd. It very well could have been the case. We came razor close to an all-out race war in this country.

It’s a race war that was ignited by John Sidney McSame III in order to win at any cost. It almost caught fire and obliterated the country. That’s what this man and his running mate have descended into in the last month of the campaign…a campaign so vile and manipulative it convinced one of his supporters to try to injure herself and pass herself off as a martyr in order to destroy Barack Obama, race relations, and African-Americans in this country.

Repugnant, hideous, vile, angry, and hateful doesn’t begin to describe it. But it is all laid at the feet of this man and the party he represents, and honor he sacrificed to try to win the Presidency.

America was saved this time because Ashley Todd is a terrible liar. Think about that. Think about how the country got to that point…and who took it there.

Then work to make sure we never get to this point again.

Ashley Todd’s America…John McSame’s America…is not my America. My America is a much, much better place.

4 Comments

Zandar1 on October 25, 2008 at 1:20 pm

And now the McSame campaign is denying everything about the Ashley Todd incident. TPM’s David Kurtz sums it up:

So here’s what the McCain camp would have you believe. Two different TV stations. Two different reporters. Neither could distinguish what they were told by the police (whom they presumably deal with on a daily basis) from what a campaign flack told them. So thorough is their sloppiness that even after the fact, upon reflection, both reporters stick by their stories, continuing to misattribute police statements to the campaign.

The McCain campaign denial also requires you to believe that, more than 12 hours after the concocted attack, the police — who say they were suspicious of the hoaxster’s account from the beginning — started leaking to reporters an incendiary version of events that didn’t even make it into the original police report of the incident.

Perhaps most implausibly, the McCain camp account requires you to give the benefit of the doubt to a crew that wants you to believe that Obama himself is a smooth-talking, baby-killing Islamic terrorist who embraces socialism and white women.

This whole thing stinks.

I’m hoping that there’s some possibility that some good will come of this, that an honest discussion of race in this country will result.

But I doubt it.

Zandar1 on October 25, 2008 at 6:46 pm

And finally, TPM’s Josh Marshall is calling for a full disclosure of the role of McSame’s PA communications head, Peter Feldman, in spreading the attacks on Obama before the Todd story was disproven.

As Greg Sargent reported yesterday, McCain Pennsylvania communications director Peter Feldman pushed reporters on a highly incendiary version of Todd’s hoax — providing reporters with quotes from the fictitious attacker and telling them the the “B” scratched on Todd’s face stood for “Barack.” As the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson aptly put it, Feldman’s actions showed “not just a willingness to believe it but an eagerness to incite a … racial backlash against the Obama campaign.”

Our reporting did not find any direct evidence that the McCain campaign’s national headquarters played a role pushing the story.

However, the national campaign has now come forward and lied about what happened in Pennsylvania. McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers has now told NBC that alleged quotes from the McCain campaign in early reports of the story were actually the product of “sloppy reporting” and that they were actually quotes from the Pittsburgh police.

This is simply not credible.

Initial reports specifically quote the McCain campaign. And at least two sources involved in the contemporaneous reporting have come forward and said on the record that the quotes came directly from the McCain campaign. To believe that two separate local news organizations made the identical mistake with the same quotes and are now both covering it up is simply not credible. But that is what Rogers is now claiming.

The McCain campaign’s after-the-fact lie about its role in this hoax makes it essential that it provide a complete and honest account of both the local and national campaign’s role. As I said above, we did not find direct evidence of the national McCain campaign pushing this story. But Gov. Palin did call Todd after the purported attack, as did Sen. McCain. And news of these calls was provided to the press.

The involvement of the candidates and specifically the release of such information — which was clearly intended to bump up interest in the story — shows some level of involvement by the national campaign.

This may be the straw that breaks McSame…and the GOP.

Salunga on October 25, 2008 at 2:13 pm

They are looking for a match to light the gasoline they have been pouring over everything. It has to come from outside the campaign so McCain can feign righteous indignation.
There is no substance to his campaign at all, its raw emotion kindled by fear of a black man becoming president. The term liberal in their circles means terrorist or immoral slacker. Liberal is about giving some small flying fuck to what happens to someone even if caring does not benefit you personally. They do not and may never get it.

parvenu on October 26, 2008 at 6:12 pm

I am a veteran and I differ with all of these lemmings who constantly preface any criticism of Mccain with “I honor him for his service to America.” One of my early tasks in the military was that of squad leader, and I can tell you this, I would not have a bonehead wise ass like Mccain on my team. Civilians don’t understand that in the infantry your chances of survival depend on every member of your squad. Failure to quickly respond to the leader’s command could result in the entire squad being wiped out instantly. These commands in a combat situation are meant to position the squad in the best position to maximize the field of outgoing fire while minimizing the team’s exposure to incoming fire. Unfortunately basic training does not screen out all of the fuckups and goofballs, and sometimes out in the field the choices are seriously limited. Judging from Mccain’s record demolition of 5 fighter planes before he was grounded permanently in North Vietnam, I wouldn’t want him in my squad if I could get out of it.

Zandar1 on October 25, 2008 at 1:20 pm

And now the McSame campaign is denying everything about the Ashley Todd incident. TPM’s David Kurtz sums it up:

So here’s what the McCain camp would have you believe. Two different TV stations. Two different reporters. Neither could distinguish what they were told by the police (whom they presumably deal with on a daily basis) from what a campaign flack told them. So thorough is their sloppiness that even after the fact, upon reflection, both reporters stick by their stories, continuing to misattribute police statements to the campaign.

The McCain campaign denial also requires you to believe that, more than 12 hours after the concocted attack, the police — who say they were suspicious of the hoaxster’s account from the beginning — started leaking to reporters an incendiary version of events that didn’t even make it into the original police report of the incident.

Perhaps most implausibly, the McCain camp account requires you to give the benefit of the doubt to a crew that wants you to believe that Obama himself is a smooth-talking, baby-killing Islamic terrorist who embraces socialism and white women.

This whole thing stinks.

I’m hoping that there’s some possibility that some good will come of this, that an honest discussion of race in this country will result.

But I doubt it.
- Zandar1 on October 25, 2008 at 6:46 pm
  
  And finally, TPM’s Josh Marshall is calling for a full disclosure of the role of McSame’s PA communications head, Peter Feldman, in spreading the attacks on Obama before the Todd story was disproven.
  
  As Greg Sargent reported yesterday, McCain Pennsylvania communications director Peter Feldman pushed reporters on a highly incendiary version of Todd’s hoax — providing reporters with quotes from the fictitious attacker and telling them the the “B” scratched on Todd’s face stood for “Barack.” As the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson aptly put it, Feldman’s actions showed “not just a willingness to believe it but an eagerness to incite a … racial backlash against the Obama campaign.”
  
  Our reporting did not find any direct evidence that the McCain campaign’s national headquarters played a role pushing the story.
  
  However, the national campaign has now come forward and lied about what happened in Pennsylvania. McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers has now told NBC that alleged quotes from the McCain campaign in early reports of the story were actually the product of “sloppy reporting” and that they were actually quotes from the Pittsburgh police.
  
  This is simply not credible.
  
  Initial reports specifically quote the McCain campaign. And at least two sources involved in the contemporaneous reporting have come forward and said on the record that the quotes came directly from the McCain campaign. To believe that two separate local news organizations made the identical mistake with the same quotes and are now both covering it up is simply not credible. But that is what Rogers is now claiming.
  
  The McCain campaign’s after-the-fact lie about its role in this hoax makes it essential that it provide a complete and honest account of both the local and national campaign’s role. As I said above, we did not find direct evidence of the national McCain campaign pushing this story. But Gov. Palin did call Todd after the purported attack, as did Sen. McCain. And news of these calls was provided to the press.
  
  The involvement of the candidates and specifically the release of such information — which was clearly intended to bump up interest in the story — shows some level of involvement by the national campaign.
  
  This may be the straw that breaks McSame…and the GOP.
Salunga on October 25, 2008 at 2:13 pm

They are looking for a match to light the gasoline they have been pouring over everything. It has to come from outside the campaign so McCain can feign righteous indignation.
There is no substance to his campaign at all, its raw emotion kindled by fear of a black man becoming president. The term liberal in their circles means terrorist or immoral slacker. Liberal is about giving some small flying fuck to what happens to someone even if caring does not benefit you personally. They do not and may never get it.
parvenu on October 26, 2008 at 6:12 pm

I am a veteran and I differ with all of these lemmings who constantly preface any criticism of Mccain with “I honor him for his service to America.” One of my early tasks in the military was that of squad leader, and I can tell you this, I would not have a bonehead wise ass like Mccain on my team. Civilians don’t understand that in the infantry your chances of survival depend on every member of your squad. Failure to quickly respond to the leader’s command could result in the entire squad being wiped out instantly. These commands in a combat situation are meant to position the squad in the best position to maximize the field of outgoing fire while minimizing the team’s exposure to incoming fire. Unfortunately basic training does not screen out all of the fuckups and goofballs, and sometimes out in the field the choices are seriously limited. Judging from Mccain’s record demolition of 5 fighter planes before he was grounded permanently in North Vietnam, I wouldn’t want him in my squad if I could get out of it.

Ashley Todd’s America

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