McCain Supporter Attacked, Maimed
 

I am horrified that the following happened in Pittsburgh - this could have been me at 20 years old. A college student and McCain volunteer from Texas (UT?) was attacked and maimed by an Obama supporter:

KDKA-TV: "It's a disgusting act of violence..."

Fox News:
He said that her attacker became enraged when he saw she had the McCain bumper sticker, and yelled, "You are one of those McCain people."


WTAE-TV news:
maimed by her attacker, apparently because of her political views...

Don't bother checking CNN - they obviously don't care. I am, however, a little surprised to post this at what, 10:34 est, and nothing has been mentioned prior to this. WTH, no, I'm not.

Ahhhh you stay classy, Pittsburgh.


Seriously.

Jeez, people. Can't we be civil?

As an Obama supporter and ardent Democrat, I'm honestly more pissed off about this news than I was about the Obama canvasser attacked by the McCain supporter. Hey you asshole! Get off my team!

Also, what's the B for? Bitch? Jeez, you'd think a member of the educated elite - 'cuz all Democrats are, right? - could be more creative than that. :p

Please - some of us aren't trashy.

The B is for Barak, according to the news stations.

And take a look at all of the threads about how much Sarah Palin's wardrobe cost, her daughter, McCain's age, etc, etc. Obama supporters have lost the right to be civil about this one!

Frankly, I hope they apprehend the guy, and if he has anything to do with the Obama campaign, I hope Ms. Todd sues for the rest of the campaign funds. Nobody deserves that!

Sorry I wasn't clear. My plea to folks to be civil was actually to the nut-jobs out there who are attacking people for holding opposing political views. Stealing yard signs is trashy. Vandalism is ridiculous. Physical violence is appalling!

I can't wait for 11/4, no matter how it ends.

I'm sorry I misread that - sincerely.

Totally agreed. This is beyond the pale, IMHO.

People seem to be interpreting this as "Obama supporter attacks McCain supporter" when to me, it's more like "Woman who was getting mugged anyway gets assaulted even worse for being a McCain supporter."

I am NOT saying she deserved it or that what happened wasn't despicable.

I'm just saying it's important that we don't read this as one campaign volunteer assaulting another, because there's no evidence to support that.

No worries.

Oh, and hey, it's on CNN now. The CNN.com article was on my Google News front page.

He was walking away from her - with her ATM money - when he saw the McCain bumper sticker, then attacked her.

FYI, Pittsburgh has a very low crime rate compared to most "major" cities. This would have been big news without the political angle. That angle only enhances the whole "Bitter Pennsylvanians rely on their guns and Bibles" and "Pennsylvanians are all racists" remarks. Many, many people are terribly unhappy about those interpretations.

Yeah, if 18th out of 72 "major" cities is "very low" . . . which is slightly higher than its 22nd ranking in metro-area population. It's a big city, crime happens.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a fan of the 'Burgh, but I just don't see the angle you're espousing here. If anything, the reporting seems to focus strongly on the Obama connection, even though (as far as we know) the guy is just a supporter, and not connected to the campaign. I don't see anything that impugns Yinzers either - any "guns 'n bibles" connection really seems to be reading too much into this.

Disgusting.

When I first read this story this afternoon, I thought something seemed kind of fishy about it. Things that struck me as really questionable:

- She claims that she was at the ATM when it happened, and yet the incident occurred when she was conveniently out of range for the ATM's surveillance cameras?
- She refused any kind of immediate medical treatment -- she clearly wasn't worried about tetanus or permanent scarring -- and yet she went to the hospital today. Not wanting to go in the first place could be chalked up to lack of health insurance or something, but going back the next day blows that theory.
- The cut seems awfully superficial to be the work of a violent mugger in an angry rage wielding a decent-sized knife. (One of my college roommates was a self-injurerer. I've seen her make far nastier cuts than that with a pair of scissors.)
- Her twitter comments seemed ridiculously staged. She somehow manages to more or less predict how her evening will turn out before it even happens. Oh, and look, there's a McCain plug at the end!

Things that seemed kind of suspicious, but probably wouldn't have seemed that weird if it weren't for the above major red flags:
- She described the assailant as wearing a wife-beater. It's October in Pittsburgh at 9 PM. Either he's too poor to buy a coat, strung out on some great drugs . . . or he's imaginary. Who else would wear a wife-beater when it's 45 out?
- Why a B? A real Obama fan probably would have opted for an O.
- While we're on the subject of the B, why is it backwards? Sure, he could have knocked her to the ground and stood over her to carve it in upside down, but that leaves her in a pretty good position to escape. If you were trying to immobilize her, you would sit on her chest and pin her hands down while you cut her up. (In fact, one article claims that Ashley Todd described it happening exactly like that.) But that would make the B forwards, not backwards. . .
- Could not provide a physical description beyond height, weight and race. (Surprise! It's a black man!)
- Why did she leave the scene of the crime and then return later, only calling the police when she came back? By all accounts, it's a fairly well-populated neighborhood at that hour of the night, with restaurants still open even on the block where she was claiming it happened. Wouldn't it have made more sense to go to the pizza place down the block, call the cops and wait for them there?
- The photo accompanying most articles was not distributed by the media or the police, but by Todd herself. That makes it pretty clear that -- whether she staged the attempt or not -- she's distributing the image in order to get something from the public. Whether that's simply attention or a furthering of her candidate's political agenda, we can only guess.

At any rate . . . turns out the police agreed that her story didn't add up. Because of inconsistencies both in her story, and between the story and the crime scene evidence, they want her to take a polygraph test.

So what do you guys think? Hoax or legitimate?

^^^ It's a hoax. I don't believe any of it for a second.