Well, this story has developed quicker than we can draft articles. On Friday, we picked up a story about
Ashley Todd, a campaign worker for
John McCain, who claimed to have been
attacked and disfigured by an Obama supporter at an ATM in Pittsburgh. Before we could even finish the editing process,
new details emerged about inconsistencies in her story, and we began reworking our initial report.
Then before we could even get that story posted reports started coming out that she had
made the whole thing up!
So, what happened? Well, details are still scarce.The story initially came to our attention because she had been
Twittering just moments before the attack allegedly happened. According to
her Twitter feed,Todd had been driving around the "wrong side of Pittsburgh" looking for a Bank of America to avoid being charged ATM fees.
It's then that Todd claims she was approached from behind by an African-American man, who took $60 from her and proceeded to beat her. According to her initial police report the physical assault was inspired by her McCain bumper sticker. She said the man beat her while shouting, "You are going to be a Barack supporter." She claimed that then he pinned her to the ground and carved a "B" into her face with a dull knife.
The tale sounded crazy but there seemed to be no reason to doubt her account of the attack. That is, until follow-up interviews with police produced several inconsistencies. Suddenly, she couldn't remember whether it was the bumper sticker or her campaign button that set off her attacker. Even more suspicious, she suddenly added two details to the attack that would have been very difficult to forget. She added sexual assault to the accusations against her mysterious attacker, and claimed that she was knocked unconscious at some point during the attack.
The new details provoked suspicion among investigators who then asked Todd to submit to a polygraph test. Apparently, she failed with flying colors. Todd broke down shortly afterwards and confessed to having made the whole thing up.
Police have obtained surveillance photos from the ATM where the assault supposedly took place. Suffice it to say, they do not support her original account. Whether Todd gave herself the black eye and carved the backwards "B" into her face is still unknown. Both John McCain and
Sarah Palin called to offer their support to the woman in the immediate aftermath of the "attack."
Developments over the weekend included claims that a
flack for the McCain campaign actually pushed the story for publicity purposes, and another about Todd having
pulled the same stint on the Ron Paul campaign back in March.
Regardless of what the background is, Todd now faces charges for making a false report to police and become just another example of race-baiting and fear-mongering amongst McCain supporters. John Moody, Vice President of Fox News went as far as saying, "
...McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting." Though we'd hardly call the accusations of a crazy woman clearly trying to inspire racial fear the nail in the coffin for the McCain campaign (McCain and Palin are arguably sinking their own ship), it certainly does not reflect well on the campaign or the Republican party in general. [From:
KDKA,
Political Machine,
CNN,
WTAE]
