Ashley Todd, a 20 year old volunteer for the McCain campaign claimed to have been mugged. Then when the attacker (a 6'4" Black man) saw her McCain bumper sticker, he became enraged, beating her and then carving a "B" (supposedly for Barack Obama) into her face.
Todd refused medical treatment immediately following the incident.
It was then noticed that there were a number of inconsistencies in her story. The details changed (was it her bumper sticker or campaign button he saw? Was she conscious? Was she sexually molested as well?), not to mention how many things are wrong with the picture that was released. Backwards "B"? Carved so neatly? An eye-shadowy black eye that is literally black (not purple as they tend to be?)
This story was buzzing about the 'net all morning. Many saying it was clearly a hoax and many others saying it's "proof" that there's something wrong with Obama supporters.
Turns out it was all a lie. Todd recanted her story and will be faces charged for filing false reports.
What makes me most sick about this story is first of all- how people jumped the gun to assume that actions taken by ONE candidate supporter (whether it be Todd or her pretend attacker, had he been real) shows evidence of corruption amongst the actual candidates. Todd's crazy story doesn't prove that McCain is a racist. If her story were true, it wouldn't mean Obama was a sexist or a nut job. This election is getting way out of hand and people are clearly making it an issue of race and heritage. (I wonder would this story have gotten so much attention if the genders, ethnicities and/or political alliances were reversed.) We would like to pretend we're an evolved society, but clearly we are not. You should support and candidate because you believe in what s/he stands for. Not who the parents are or what religion anyone is.
The other thing that makes me sick is that this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that discredits actual victims. Every time a woman is assaulted and/or raped there are people lined up to say she's lying. Or they say we shouldn't care so much about rape victims because of all the men who are hurt by false accusations. Meanwhile, false charges are the vast minority. The fact that Todd took away so much media attention over this elaborate story will make it that much more difficult for someone to believe a real victim. She is a girl who cried wolf. And sadder still, she thought she was helping! But now it will only hurt the McCain effort, even though I'm sure he had nothing to do with it. (He's a lot of things, but this is just too low) I do believe that McCain doesn't agree a lot of what his crazier, more racist supporters say and do. But he did encourage that with his hate mongering campaign. And he's afraid to say too much against them. He'd rather get the crazy-racist vote than lose it. He can't afford to be picky.
Ms. Todd, I'm very ashamed of you. I'm sure you really do believe in what you're doing, but your actions have hurt women as a whole. I'm glad that you were not really attacked, but I'm disgusted that you lied. I just hope if something terrible ever does really happen that someone does believe you, instead of pegging you for a liar. No one deserves to be hurt in such a manner. And all victims deserve justice. I just hope you realize the damage you have caused. Read more: http://www.blogdoctor.me/2007/02/expandable-post-summaries.html#ixzz1Ygp5vxLJ
thank you for sharing the story, it's really interesting. i follow the US election as well bc i think this year's is the most interesting one.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. I think this election is interesting, but also gotten way out of hand. I wish it could just be based on issues, rather than accusations and rumors.
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