I don't think you've adequately captured how dangerous Ashley Todd's fraud actually was. It's not just that some innocent black man might have ended up wrongfully imprisoned. It's that some innocent black man might have ended up dead, murdered by a psychologically unhinged vigilante intent on avenging her assault. The danger here was not merely a wrongful conviction, it was inspiring a lynch mob.

I can relate to this:

"...the sense that this country is about to make an incalculable mistake, and no one seems to care..."

It's how I felt in 2000 and 2004 and have felt everyday in between.

Oh I don't know, the backwards B might have been an obvious clue... Unless the assailant was big, black and dislexic. Not to minimize the police effort but this wasn't exactly rocket science.

Oh I don't know, the backwards B might have been an obvious clue... Unless the assailant was big, black and dislexic. Not to minimize the police effort but this wasn't exactly rocket science.

...something unspeakably bad will happen to this country, and who is frustrated that she can't make people see what is so evident to her. You can see this kind of desperate conviction in some of the tapes of McCain supporters outside his rallies, and you can read it on some of the right-wing blogs: the sense that this country is about to make an incalculable mistake, and no one seems to care.

Yeah, well, sounds like to me some of them are getting a feel for what a lot of us were feeling circa Sept 2002 - March 2003. Except we didn't make shit up - it was the other side doing that - and for our troubles, we were called "traitors", "Saddam-lovers", "terrorist coddlers" and worse.

Fuck them and their fear of an incalcuable mistake. They wouldn't know an incalcuable mistake if it carved a backwards "IM" into their foreheads. We know this, because 5-1/2 years later, they're still walking around proudly showing off the scars.

Oddly enough, if she'd said it was a white guy, she probably wouldn't have been caught so quickly. But I think even the cops have caught onto the fact that a lot of people who are trying to cover up their actions immediately blame a mysterious black man.

I think it's being unnecessarily generous to assume that Todd was ill in some way. You don't have to have psychological problems to try to scam the press to help win an election. As for the race element -- I think that was absolutely necessary for the story to have legs. If her claim had been about some random white guy attacking her with a knife, I'm guessing the story wouldn't have made it outside of PA.

The "psychological problem" might well be "unbridled ambition." That's how Rove, and others, moved up from College Republican to Player Republican. That McCain's PA guy was putting out the story, and McCain & Palin calling her, and all this within 2-4 hours of her statement... It's possible it just happened that way. But it's not impossible that this was a planned operation.

Fortunately, a lot of people had an 'Atticus Finch' moment when they heard this dubious story.
Whoever prematurely promoted the story ought to be prosecuted as well.

crossposted at obsidian wings

You forgot the scary irony of the Stuart case. The murder occurred October 23, 1989, 19 years to the day before this event. I remember it well. I was there in Boston, and, as an African-American male of a certain age (mid-twenties, in grad school) and of a certain build (5'9", about 175 at the time), I fit the description of the mythical murderer. And I lived in fear that the cops would stop me for no reason other than a vague description that could have been one of thousands.

Democratic Underground has a post up about a real attack on an Obama campaign worker, and police already have the white attacker in Wisconsin. Interesting read...notice how no Obama campaign director has pushed the story to Fox.

Nuttiness does not follow political boundaries, and no one should think that either side is immune to it.

Oh come on, there is a clear difference between the willingness of republicans and democrats to make shit up, winning or losing. Immmune, no, but let's not play "false equivalency" here too.

"You can see this kind of desperate conviction in some of the tapes of McCain supporters outside his rallies, and you can read it on some of the right-wing blogs: the sense that this country is about to make an incalculable mistake, and no one seems to care. It would not take much, I think, for someone who felt this way, and who had serious psychiatric problems, to decide, in a moment of absolute boneheadedness, to show the world what seemed so obvious to her."

I couldn't agree more. Many of the Republican leaders, having looked into the abyss, are now reacting in disgusting and unwarranted ways. Unfortunately, a few of their followers are taking this behavior as a cue to act in even more disgusting and unwarranted ways. I hope the Secret Service has increased their surveillance.

An awful lot of liberals have felt for a long time that this country was on a self-destructive path and yet I can't think of a single example of a self-aggrandizing faux victimization stunt pulled by a liberal to make the point.

I think that what this story illustrates is one way, a defective way, for an individual to reconcile a descrepency between the world as the individual thinks it is and the world as it actually is. It would be healthier if Ashley could think,"Gee, maybe I'm mistaken and should change my mind about some things" but she appears to be unable to do that. In other words her behavior is the extreme end of a continuum which includes making up one's own facts, cherry picking facts and other forms of intellectual dishonesty.

Sometimes the stuff inside people's heads is more real to them than the stuff outside.

One might guess that the kid was acting out for her peer group and never thought it would blow up as it did.

A "shout out" to Michelle Malkin? Are you daft? Why on earth would you offer kudos to that poisonous right-wing dingbat?

If Malkin restrained herself, it was only because the rapid work of the Pittsburgh Police in resolving the case probably undercut her efforts to fan the flames at mid-column.

Naw, Michelle deserves the shout-out. She's done some nasty, vicious things, but this time she showed uncharacteristic maturity and restraint.

The whole toxic incident is no different than the whipping up of rabid crowds at a McNasty / Palin rally. No difference same shit - work them into a frenzy. You see Obama associates with robbers and sexual predators, see ? see? obvious link.

Agree: Malkin earned the props in this case.

This is the first account I have read, or heard, that has given the Pittsburg PD the props it deserves for the judicious manner in which they handled this incident.

Thanks for that.

Michelle Malkin helps keep a politically charged story from getting out of control? I think I hear the hoof beats of the four horsemen now.

Seriously, as a ex-New Yorker who worked in the City during the time of the Tawana Brawley incident - it's refreshing, dare I say it - hopeful, to see that people will take a moment to consider the situation before jumping to a conclusion. This is particularly true when a black man is accused of assaulting a white woman. The lynch mob was not that long ago.

I think the young lady was desperate for attention. She knew the only way to have the story get legs was to accuse a black man. I don't think she thought it would get out of hand, but she's responsible for her own mess. The Pittsburg PD did a great job and although it pains me greatly, I agree that Michelle Malkin deserves some props for this.

"But what I can't think my way into is her saying that the person who did it was black. No kind of desperation that I can think of would have required that detail. That's just gratuitous, and very, very ugly."

I agree with you that Todd has some serious psychological problems. What I think you fail to see is that the entire set of Republican fear-mongering tropes are, deliberately and cold-bloodedly, aimed at appealing to the psychological problems that we all have to one degree or another, yoking them to social explanations that the Republicans can then exploit.

So the conjuring up of a black assailant here isn't gratuitous. It's part and parcel of the incalculable mistake that Todd feels the country is about to make.

She (and we) are just lucky that she wasn't unhinged enough to claim that she was raped -- although I'd add that a number of the published descriptions of the phony assault seemed to me to verge on that: a prone white woman being pinned down by a black man, and then physically besmirched by him.

Don't kid yourself. This is what the most disturbed among them hallucinate Obama is going to do to the country. Even among the less disturbed it's a powerful trope. And don't kid yourself that the marketing people who run Republican campaigns don't know this and don't deliberately use it.

Yeah, well, sounds like to me some of them are getting a feel for what a lot of us were feeling circa Sept 2002 - March 2003. Except we didn't make shit up - it was the other side doing that - and for our troubles, we were called "traitors", "Saddam-lovers", "terrorist coddlers" and worse.

Actually, this is the closest I have come to understanding this young woman. If I could have stopped the Iraq invasion by making up a story, would I have been tempted? Yeah. I presume I would have thought better of it, but then I am not 20 years old and emotionally disturbed . . .

Naw, Michelle deserves the shout-out. She's done some nasty, vicious things, but this time she showed uncharacteristic maturity and restraint.

Only because she knew that running with a story this sketchy would make her look like a moron. Sorry, all I see from her in this case is self-preservation.

The thing about this is how closely her story tracked "Real America"'s conception of "Un-real America".

Big city, big black guy, mugging, mutilation - *this* is what happens outside of the "good" part of the country.

How panty-waisted liberals continue to survive such a Mad Max horrorshow must be such a mystery to them.

For me probably the most remarkable aspect of this whole thing has been Malkin's response. She wasn't the only one out there in deep right field who kept her head and approached the whole episode in a rational manner, but she was the most unexpected. I mean the commentator who gave her name to the infamous Malkin Award on Andrew Sullivan's website was the rational voice of caution? How weird is that?

Now if Malkin will only consider the kind encomiums she is rightly earning from those she so hates and fears in the middle and slightly left side of the field, maybe she will tone down the rhetoric and join the reality based universe. Nahhhh

As a prosecutor for 10 years, this case did not pass the smell test. You are right in commending the police for doing their job, but I suspect they knew that this was bogus from the start. A good question to investigate would be how this got to the press in the first place? Did Ms. Todd contact the media, or were McCain personnel the first to involve the public in the case. The fact that this unraveled in less than 48 hours points to the fact that the police did not believe this woman from the start of the investigation.

Now that she has recanted, I'm torn. On the one hand, I think that anyone who would do something like this must have real psychiatric problems.

Hilzoy,

I'm not sure how you know so much about Ashley Todd. But I am sure that you know the vocabulary of electoral politics is very much demographically informed.

Every American election since 1968 has targeted whites and blacks. That's 40 years of pandering to racial groups. Race is the currency with which we politic, i.e. buy votes. That's the ugly context in which an ambitious Ashley Todd finds herself.

Yes, I am convinced that with this one action, Ms. Todd went beyond the pale. But to accuse her of being insane commits the very same problem your otherwise compassionate post is intended to address: jumping to conclusions.

moreover, when you leap past black men as signifying events to Ashley Todd's psychological state, thus resorting to an adult sort of name calling--i.e. she's insane, you remind me that time, not analysis, is going to heal our racial wounds.

Racism is not a problem of an abnormal mind. it an action following from the shallow way We think about people belonging to other races.

We need to admit that fact and stop calling other people who are struggling with those thoughts crazy. They too belong to Us.

As I see, our 21st Century task is about moving beyond race, not pretending it doesn't exist or that those people who act on the thoughts signified by race are exotic.

I've heard of Michelle Malkin, but have only read what I see here from tine to time. Her restraint may be commendable, but what is her follow-up? Will she condemn her fellow rightwingers who ran with the story? If she does not show a change of course, then she only gets props for not jumping in quickly. If she was contacted by any McCain people, will she reveal her sources? If change does not happen from this incident, then we can truly know that McCain/Palin's followers are without compassion or concern for this country, and the rest of the world.

I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john

I'm not sure if others are talking about this, but the thing to consider is that she's from College Station, Texas. That's Aggie territory and Aggies are the ones Texans make fun of for being extremely stupid and backwards. If you've ever heard a polish joke, blonde joke, or any other sort of joke based on a group of notorious dummies, it was also told as an Aggie joke. And while Aggies insist that they're the ones who invented all the good Aggie jokes, there really is a reason we single them out as being backward hicks.

And so the fact that she'd do this and single out a black man as being her attacker really isn't too surprising. College Station is like that, or at least it was the last time I went there. For as much as people insult Texas, most of the folks here live in cities that aren't too different from anywhere else. And then you've got College Station. It's the big college town for people who don't want to send their kids to the big city.

The major issues underlying this:

Untreated mental illness

Republican messaging as a manifestation of mental illness (anger, rage, obsessive/compulsiveness, fear, suspicion)

Criminalizing mental illness (using incarceration and criminal justice system to access mental health services - BTW - over one half of ALL inpatient psychiatric care is delivered in prisons - we just shifted institutionalization from hospitals)

The pornification and victimization of this person by the McCain campaign demonstrating misogyny, stigmatization of mental illness, racism, bigotry, anti-intellectualism

This is really awful on so many fronts.

I worry, most of all, about the youth who did this. She needs - and is deserving of - adequate health care, of which she isn't getting. That should be the follow-up to the McCain campaign.

She's not an Aggie, Dr. BB. She goes to Blinn College.

As I have said on other threads, this is also a condemnation of our HealthCare system: were mental health services available to her either prior to her faked assault, or after it? Was she entitled to healthcare for her injuries, had she actually sustained any? Would she have to pay for her rape kit? Where does McCain/Palin stand on the availability of reasonably priced healthcare for all? Will the RNC pay for her treatment and legal fees to defend herself?

This is not just about a possibly mentally/emotionally disturbed young woman; it also goes to the selection of campaign workers and the alleged involvement of the McCain campaign in pushing this story and, so far, failing to speak to those allegations. It is about a campaign season that has so divided the various camps that such an event as this takes on this much energy. Will the news media give this story as much attention as it has given the Ayers/Terrorist story?

There are so many questions to be addressed, and I hope that they will be addressed, if not now, then after the election. This incident is a reflection on our entire nation and needs to be addressed, now.

I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john

Went to Blinn College, I should say. I would imagine she'll be spending the foreseeable future in another kind of institution.

Hilz, I don't at all understand why you can't "think your way into" the black man portion of the comment. Even in semi-recent times, there's a notable history of claims like this.

You mentioned the Stuart case yourself.

And, who can forget South Carolina's Susan Smith, who claimed a black man abducted her kids before admitting she drove them into a lake herself?

That's why, even before reading details about the size or mirror-imaging of the "B," I assumed this was a hoax. That it was a black male, and, a big angry one at that.

Plus, as a newspaper editor, I'm immediately skeptical when in a high-stress situation like this would have been if real, someone can claim to remember verbatim an assailant's comments.

She's not an Aggie, Dr. BB. She goes to Blinn College.

Shortstop - That just means she's an Aggie that wasn't smart enough to get into Texas A&M. Being Aggie is a state of mind and doesn't require one to actually have gone to the school. Living in College Station is enough.

And btw, there's someone else named Dr. BB, so you've got to use my full name. I'm not sure if they were just trying to get on my coattails, but I assure you that I came first.

"That just means she's an Aggie that wasn't smart enough to get into Texas A&M." made me laugh out loud! Thanks Good doctor! :o)

@ st john:

According to the Republican Party release, she was fired from this job. Ergo - her health benefits, if she even had any to begin with, went POOF! She was effectively denied any health care as a result of exhibiting symptoms of untreated mental illness.

That's pretty standard throughout the US.

Get sick. Get fired. Lose health benefits. Lose health care access. Lose health care. Lose health.

So the followup to the McCain campaign and the Republican party SHOULD be:

McCain's health plan denies this person health care. Why did you (McCain or Republican Party) deny her health care? Why, if you knew that she was exhibiting symptoms of untreated mental illness, not only did not get her timely and appropriate health care, but instead, terminated her and denied her healthcare access?

If I could have stopped the Iraq invasion by making up a story, would I have been tempted? Yeah. I presume I would have thought better of it, but then I am not 20 years old and emotionally disturbed . . .

One might consider that making up stories because it would help deliver the outcome that the misleader thought was morally desirable for the world when the truth would be inadequate to do that is how we got into Iraq.

And most of those people weren't 20 years old, either. (Emotionally disturbed? I'm not qualified to judge.)

And btw, there's someone else named Dr. BB, so you've got to use my full name. I'm not sure if they were just trying to get on my coattails, but I assure you that I came first.

Thought you were the same person. I don't remember whether one or the other of you, both or neither came over from Carpetbagger.

I wasn't defending Blinn College (of which I'd never heard) as being superior to Texas A&M, by the way; it sounded to me like you were genuinely looking for info on whether she was an Aggie.

General: Someone mentioned on another thread that Todd had "just moved" to Pennsylvania. Did she move there, or was she just up there working for McCain and having this fictional attack in what totally coincidentally is a somewhat racially volatile part of a state on which McCain is pinning all his hopes?

The other good thing to come out of this sorry affair is that the media and blogosphere will be on their guard should similar tales pop up between now and Election Day.

I bet Michele Malkin showed restraint because she had been tipped off that a big news story was coming down the pike before Ashley Todd was "mugged". Once she saw Ashley's photo, she knew the story wasn't going to fly.

Can't someone be mentally ill and a complete and utter douchebag at the same time? I think we need look no further than Ms. Todd for the answer to that question. (As my best friend, who takes care of her bipolar and frequently institutionalized mother, put it to me: "It's not as if, were my mother not mentally ill, you would want to hang around with her.) Ken Layne (who called bullshit before anyone else) got it exactly right: "This isn't the sad tale of some tragic loser who makes up a story to get attention or whatever. This evil little troll made a cold, calculated effort to give Pennsylvania to her candidate and her party leader, John McCain, with a foul racist fantasy deliberately constructed to horrify white people who had slowly been won over by Barack Obama. I hope she lives a hundred years and that nobody ever forgets her hideous stunt."

Can't someone be mentally ill and a complete and utter douchebag at the same time? I think we need look no further than Ms. Todd for the answer to that question. (As my best friend, who takes care of her bipolar and frequently institutionalized mother, put it to me: "It's not as if, were my mother not mentally ill, you would want to hang around with her.) Ken Layne (who called bullshit before anyone else) got it exactly right: "This isn't the sad tale of some tragic loser who makes up a story to get attention or whatever. This evil little troll made a cold, calculated effort to give Pennsylvania to her candidate and her party leader, John McCain, with a foul racist fantasy deliberately constructed to horrify white people who had slowly been won over by Barack Obama. I hope she lives a hundred years and that nobody ever forgets her hideous stunt."

I'd like to know a whole lot more about Petey Feldman, where he is now, what he's doing, who he talked to on his cell phone during this hoax, and I'd like to hear the McCain campaign address this whole episode.

I'd like to know a whole lot more about Petey Feldman, where he is now, what he's doing, who he talked to on his cell phone during this hoax, and I'd like to hear the McCain campaign address this whole episode.

The story of the kid Garcia that took the pictures doesn't feel right to me. I'm not sure why, but he says he believed Todd's story, and only an idiot would believe her . I believe he's a law student and not an idiot. Thereofre I think he's lying to cover his ass.

I think that Garicia and possibly several others from #litf and CNRC were in on this idea from th ebegining, and staged it on purpose when they knew Sean Hannity would be in town the next day. And if they had found someone less inept to perpetrate the lie they might very well have gotten away with it. Shame on all of you and I hope you get caught.

The story of the kid Garcia that took the pictures doesn't feel right to me. I'm not sure why, but he says he believed Todd's story, and only an idiot would have believed her. I recall that he's a law student and therefore likely not a total idiot. Therefore I think he's lying to cover his ass.

I think that Garcia and possibly several others from #litf and CNRC were in on this idea from the begining, and staged it on purpose when they knew Sean Hannity would be in town the next day. And if they had found someone less inept to carry out the fake assault, they might very well have gotten away with it.

Shame on all of you and I hope you get caught.

The exposing of Ashley Todd's fraud and the concern over her mental state supports a theory I've been develope watching this election: after 8 years of nightmarish republican incompetence and the selection of Palin as VP, anyone supporting John McCain ought to have their hear examined.

I personally know Ashley Todd - she is a very misguided CHILD who unwittingly caused a media sensation by her actions. I can't imagine she thought for one minute there would be these kinds of reprocussions. She is a good girl at heart that obviously needs some help.

A child, Jeanne? That "child" is twenty years old; she hasn't been a child in three years! She is misguided, she needs help, but she also needs to accept the consequences for her mistake, as a responsible adult should. She did this to herself and now any backlash she gets from it is her own fault.