I take it back--I think McCain WILL be hurt by the Ashley Todd hoax. I think he already has been.

I was doubtful yesterday, but now I really do think this will have a negative effect on the campaign--not a fatally huge negative effect, mind you, but an effect nonetheless.

For one, McCain's campaign is definitely starting to be seen as The Boy Who Cried Wolf. He tried Ayers, he tried ACORN, he tried Socialism, and now it's clear he was all set to try Race Baiting before even knowing if the story was true. I think anything he says from this point onward is going to be seen as BS, even if Obama put on a swastika armband and kicked a puppy into a meatgrinder; if McCain was the only one who witnessed it, no one would believe it.

But for another, and more important point: Todd is a fascinating, horrifying glimpse into the heart of McCain's campaign. A lot of ink has been devoted to the people working for Obama's campaign, and post-ACORN, it hasn't all been completely positive. This week, however, a seemingly-average McCain phone-banker thrust herself into the spotlight, and boy is it scary...you have to wonder if the entire country isn't scratching its head, wondering "Are they ALL this insane?"

Moreover, the fact that this clearly "troubled" woman is working for them at all is incredible in of itself, to say nothing of the fact that they trusted and believed her story, took it all the way to the top, and even spread it to the MSM. Clearly, there's no chain of command, no organization, and vetting--in the Obama campaign, an incident like this would never have made it past the lower levels before it was fully researched. Shortly after this hoax broke, we saw a glut of GOP officials coming forward (anonymously, of course) to say that the ground-game was a mess and the infighting never stopped. It's no coincidence, in my opinion.

This new narrative--of a campaign imploding--is only going to get bigger in the next couple of days, and it's partially thanks to Ashley that America is ready to believe it.

a sign of a serious untreated infection beneath.

...but rather apt. :hi:

..and how they AND the McPalin campaign pushed this story HARD that night.

"McCain has run such an awful campaign that honestly I dont know what the hell he plans to do"

(We were discussing the bailouts)

That's a trained salaried position.

x(

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08299/922849-53.stm/


snip...

Ms. Todd's job as a field representative for the College Republican National Committee brought her to Pittsburgh about two weeks ago to recruit college students. She had worked for the committee since August. Yesterday, the organization fired her.

Ashley Barbera, the organization's communications director, said workers initially were concerned for Ms. Todd's safety.

"We are as upset as anyone to learn of her deceit. Ashley must take full responsibility for her actions," she said.

In March, Ms. Todd was asked to leave a grass-roots group of Ron Paul supporters in Brazos County, Texas, group leader Dustan Costine said. He said Ms. Todd posed as a supporter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and called the local Republican committee seeking information about its campaign strategies.

"She would call the opposing campaign and pretend she was on their campaign to get information," Mr. Costine said last night. "We had to remove her because of the tactics she displayed. After that we had nothing to do with her."

About a month earlier, he said, Ms. Todd sent an e-mail to the Ron Paul group saying her tires were slashed and that campaign paraphernalia had been stolen from her car because she supported Mr. Paul.

"Race-baiting McCain Hoaxer received call of support from Sarah Palin."

This is absolutely true, unlike Drudge's original "mutilation" lie.

She's no more troubled than a lot of the middle management people I know and have worked with. Believe it or not there are plenty of people who are incapable of thinking about the possible negative consequences of what they do, but who are so blindly ambitious to fit into any group that has power that they think some scheme will get them accepted. She isn't a mental case who's crying out for help. She is about the stupidity of people who's mental abilities are arrested in their adolescense and they think in terms of prank gotcha actions. All she thought about was that she was going to be a hero for the cause, a young Rovian up and coming operative who would be key in smearing the Obama image.

And the reason she worked for the McCain campaign is because most of them think and scheme exactly the way she does. Why does anyone want to give this B girl any kind of break as some poor misguided sorrowful figure? What if she'd been just a little better at lying and give herself a real black eye and actually drew some blood in her attempt to look like she'd been cut? What would have happened if she had been able to fool the police? Stop feeling she's some pathetic victim of the big bad Republicans. She was willing to slander and smear and lie and deceive for her own personal gain, and with a little more intelligence she could have pulled it off.

If nothing else then she must be held accountable for her actions. There's no need to hate her or want some great punishment. It's just about being accountable. Did she show any such concern for the black men she victimized by slandering them all?

...EVERYone would be carving letters backwards into their faces.

She IS troubled in that she thought this little scheme was going to work, when she obviously didn't know what the hell she was doing.

But I'm not saying she wasn't responsible for her own actions--of course she is. Either way, it doesn't look good for the McCampaign.

I thought of Lynndie England (the Abu Ghraib guard) and how their appearances are similar. Your post made me think that their faulty thought processes were likewise similar.

Both did wrong, both did damage to other people, and both must be held accountable for their actions.

by the Ashley story.

He doesn't have any time left for distractions.