HOAX! Mccain, FOX News push Obama rape/mutilation story

On October 24, 2008, John McCain's communications director for Pennsylvania, Peter Feldman, fanned the flames of racial bigotry to score political points. Feldman peddled the story to at least two Pittsburgh TV news outlets (KDKA and WPXI) that a 6' 4" "dark skinned" African-American man assaulted, robbed, and carved a "B" into the cheek of a 20-year-old white woman "volunteer" from the Young Republicans named Ashley Todd. McCain's communications wizard embellished the story for maximum political effect, telling reporters that the "B" obviously stood for "Barack," and that her attacker had yelled at her: "Oh you're with McCain . . . you're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson!" Feldman said the man had become enraged when he saw a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on Todd's car. The episode prompted statements from both the McCain and Obama campaigns, as well as sympathy telephone calls to the "victim" from John McCain and Sarah Palin. "We're shaken up by this. It's sick and disgusting," the McCain campaign officially stated. Naturally, such a juicy story with its racial overtones was the delight of the Drudge Report, Fox News, and right-wing talk radio. But the Republicans' dream of exploiting the incident to scare white people in Pennsylvania (and nationally) quickly unraveled when the whole thing was exposed as a pathetic hoax perpetrated by a disturbed young woman and an equally disturbed presidential campaign.

Matt Drudge, Mark Noonans, and Brent Bozell's "Newsbusters" were among the most vociferous purveyors of this racist hoax. The phony attack story revealed just how willing and eager are the denizens of the right-wing blogosphere and Republican echo chamber to fan the flames of racial hatred if they think it will benefit their candidate. Meanwhile, Youtube is overflowing with damning videos of McCain supporters at rallies in the "real America" happy to share their racist views, yelling things like: "Vote McCain, Not Hussein!" and "His education was paid for by Arabs!"

But what's happening to the Republican party today runs much deeper than this election. The current crisis has been brewing for 44 years. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Right Act in 1964 he said that he believed he had just delivered the South to the Republicans for a generation. Johnson knew that the vestiges of the Jim Crow system were so entrenched that white voters in the South would change their party affiliations once it became clear the Democratic party favored black civil rights. The 1968 presidential campaign offered the GOP the first opportunity to run the "Southern Strategy." Subsequent elections proved Johnson right: the South turned Republican. And this "Southernizing" of the Republican party became complete over the course of the last 14 years. In 1994, Newt Gingrich of Georgia ushered in his "Revolution." By 2000, Southern Republicans controlled the House of Representatives with an iron hand under Tom DeLay of Texas.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/crazy-woman-in-pittsburgh_b_13...
It had drawn wide local and national -- even political attention, with the McCain and Obama campaigns weighing in -- but now the Ashley Todd story has fallen apart. Police in Pittsburgh have now declared the tale a hoax and the woman, who has confessed, now faces charges for her deed.

Earlier today, John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, commented on his blog there that "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."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/fox-news-vp-if-mccain-wor_b_13752...
No one in our family was surprised by what happened last week. Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white Republican campaign worker, claimed she was attacked by a "6-4 African American man" who robbed her, groped her, and carved a backwards B into her cheek to "teach her a lesson." The B for Barack.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-straight/the-6-4-black-guy_b_138348.html

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[Euterperocks]

Everyone is focusing on the racism aspect. Women everywhere also need to be enraged by Todd's bizarre hate crime. Every survivor of sexual assault is profoundly personally insulted by this young woman. Rape victims generally face a very difficult time in getting help & pursuing charges. Fraudulent claims like Todd's cast aspersions on sexual assault survivors. The evilness of her deed needs to be addressed from all angles. I'm glad this aspect is touched upon at the end of the video. *****

[ThermostatAgreeable]

This set women and republicans back a few years. Sigh.

I imagine a real attack went overlooked due to this fiasco, as well.

[cleves2007usa]

obama and his wife has a big scar on there head ya they been jacked by illumanti,look on it,may 24 2008 is sign he wrote on the year 2011 at the royal court its was ufos in california that day,the dark ufos are lucifer they have horns on them and light white crystal ones are god forces his empire coming soon psalms 2 and 72,,,, harrp being used by usa army to cause quakes and storms,also 911 caused by illumanti why see proof in parasite eve one and 2 both came out before 2001 be shock clues in

[StoogeWatcher]

And yet Olbermann and Democrats like him defended Crystal Mangum, the lying whore from the Duke lacrosse rape hoax.

[webhead86104]

Obama has no idea what he is doing!!!!!! >:()

[SleepingGiantsSister]

Wow, I never even hear about this story.

[crumbzcookie]

who would want to assault/grope her ??

[SgtTravisBickle]

Because Ron Paul was locked out. Now we have a tanned Bush.

[thursdaysrecords]

Unless some clay-skull right wingers are making a quick step closer to the center, the GOP as we know it may die off faster than the Whigs, and Federalist. We've left the dark days behind, and we are recognizing that the 1950s were not better than the 1990s, and we are not ready to banish women to the kitchens, churches and bedrooms again.

[MariaAlos000]

Dude if you were here, I would beat the crap out of you until you cried and then laugh because you got beat up by a girl whose 5'6. Of course, given that you're probably 4 feet tall and angry because god gave you a tiny penis you may get some sympathy points, but it would be worth it just to see you run home to your ho ass mommy... I mean your sister, rats I can never get it straight with you guys.

[MariaAlos000]

America doesn't belong to you racists, soon you guys will be an exhibit at natural history museum right after the Neanderthal exhibit and before modern man (titled: "Homo-small-penis-redneckapien­s") (if you didn't get that reference read a science book sometime). America es la tierra de los libres! :-P