The increasingly ugly and angry tone of the presidential campaign began to take on new substance this week with the emergence of the story of McCain campaign worker Ashley Todd, who claimed that she had been attacked and brutalized by an Obama supporter in Pittsburgh.
After doing poorly on a police lie detector test and learning that video recordings from the ATM machine did not support her story, Todd admitted that the attack was a hoax and that she had fabricated the injuries appearing in a photo posted on the web. She will likely face charges of filing a false police report as a result.
Meanwhile another similar incident passed relatively unnoticed by the media which has made much of both Todd's original claim and the subsequent revelation that it was a hoax. In the Milwaukee area, 58 year old Nancy Takehara was going door to door for the Obama campaign when 71 year-old homeowner Ronald Goetsch allegedly attacked her, grabbing her by the hair and pounding her on the head while screaming at her.
Goetsch apologized for his behavior, maintaining that although he did pull Takehara's hair, that was the extent of the physical assault, and that he mostly screamed at her, behavior which his wife described as atypical.
A spokesman for the local Republican Party condemned all campaign related misbehavior, including theft of yard signs and said “Violence, theft, and election fraud have no place in a civil society. We condemn any such acts, no matter who perpetrates them.”
Similar condemnations have come from both presidential campaigns over the Todd incident and other outbreaks of violence and hostility, such as the false accusations that McCain supporters were shouting "kill him" about Barack Obama at a Pennsylvania rally last week, numerous incidents of vandalism of vehicles and property around the nation and the bizarre discovery of a dead bear cub covered in Obama posters on the campus of Western Carolina University.
The escalating level of anger and inflammatory rhetoric from supporters of both campaigns has reached a point where police departments in major cities are preparing for the possibility of riots on election night, regardless of who ends up winning the election. Cities like Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia have a history of celebratory violence associated with sporting events, and there is concern that an Obama victory may be as likely to touch off rioting as an Obama defeat.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - fred
Ahh, finally - a nice, reasoned voice on these recent events.
2 - Dave Nalle
You notice how much less interest there is in this reasonable article than there would be in something more inflammatory.
Dave
3 - pablo
Dave,
I did notice that, now that you mention it. A thinly veiled attempt to clean up your mess, and even having the "fairness" to include the attack on the Obama worker. How caucasian of you. Happy now bucko?
I would characterize it as extremely smarmy, but hey thats just me, cynical Pablo.
4 - Miri
While I agree that McCain/Palin are not responsible directly for this troubled young woman, it should remind them that there are troubled people who may act on their cries of terrorist socialist in violent and dangerous ways.
5 - Baritone
Well Dave, you're probably right, but give it a chance. It's only been posted a couple of hours, and most reasonable people are in sleepy land.
Well, I don't suppose many people here at BC can be described as "reasonable." But still.
Actually Dave, I agree with you. It's a good article. Of course early elections in this country were in many ways far more contentious than they are now, including this one. Can you imagine what those early elections could have been like had there been today's communication technologies and 24/7 media coverage?
B
6 - Lisa Solod Warren
It is unfortunate that the McCain/Palin campaign has spent so much time jacking up their audiences with inflammatory rhetoric and airing advertisements like the one today which essentially said that we could avoid a "testing" of our president if we elected him instead of Obama (which Joe Lieberman who supports McCain said the same exact thing Joe Biden said: that any candidate would be tested as Clinton was and Bush was early in his presidency) rather than spending time on the issues.
As I said in my own opinion piece: Character, Assassinated McCain and his running mate have run a fractured, nasty campaign, illustrated by the fact that even their own workers are telling tales.
You may wish to sound fair and balanced, Dave, and admittedly this young girl is one sick puppy, but both McCain and Palin believed her fantastic story and were all to ready to lend their support to a girl who was, to my mind, clearly making up something too weird to be true. And scarily racist to boot.
The majority of Americans are sick to death with the negativity of the Republicans this season. I hope that results in a Democratic victory. If it doesn't, the the country is in deep trouble.
And please try and face it, Dave. The huge majority of the lies and innuendo and certainly the fear mongering and whipping crowds into frenzies has come from the Republicans.
7 - Dave Nalle
Already knowing what the Republicans have on their agenda I pay much less attention to what they are saying than what the left is saying.
And what I'm getting from the left is every bit as hate-filled and deceptive as what McCain and Palin are being accused of. Obama himself has done a fair job of staying above the mudslinging, but his surrogates and partisans are as bad as anything I've ever heard.
Remember the MoveOn.org video I posted a link to in the comments a while ago? It maintained that electing McCain would bring about a nuclear attack on Iran and the death of babies as an immediate and direct result. Come on. That kind of extreme BS is just ridiculous.
You might want to take some time to go out and read some of what's on sites like Democratic Underground and DailyKos with a more objective eye. It's pretty scary.
Dave
8 - Clavos
None so blind as those who as those that will not see.
Commentaries (1708-1710)
Matthew Henry
9 - Clavos
None so blind as those that will not see.
Must review comments before publishing....
10 - cjh
So when Dave believed her story, it "epitomized much of the anger and bitterness of this election season," and now that the story has been proven false, it demonstrates "the increasingly ugly and angry tone of the presidential campaign"? Either condition proves his point?
Perhaps she's just a sick individual, and pundits believe what they want to believe regardless of facts.
11 - bliffle
IIRC, immediately after the 2006 elections that a rather vicious series of attacks were launched right here on BC against Nancy Pelosi, featuring a very unflattering picture of the Speaker.
Who were those people?
12 - Franco
#6 " Lisa Solod Warren
rather than spending time on the issues.
Ah Lisa, the good old Obama stand-in line. We are not buying it from him so what makes you think we would buy if from you? Get real girl and stop sounding like a campaign speech.
were all to ready to lend their support to a girl who was, to my mind, clearly making up something too weird to be true.
Lisa and her mind reading crystal ball readings to her mind.
And scarily racist to boot.
Only someone who exploits racism as a tool would make such a statement about it.
The majority of Americans are sick to death with the negativity of the Republicans this season.
Well that all depends on which majority your taking about. So speak for yourself.
The huge majority of the lies and innuendo has come from the Republicans.
That statement is the biggest lie of them all! I defy you to list one lie about Bill Ayers and Obama's conection to him that was a lie?
13 - Baritone
Franco,
Tell us one thing about the Ayers/Obama connection that was NOT innuendo. And, tell us anything substantive regarding their relationship - recount for us what they did together, what they talked about, what they may have schemed about that you know. Anything! The fact is that you know nothing and neither does McCain and company. It is nothing but innuendo. Innuendo is a very small baby step from a lie, for it certainly cannot be counted as truth.
Dave may be correct concerning the things he has found on the internet. But the McCain/Palin campaign has been making these personal attacks in their stump speeches, in their main line national and regional TV and radio advertising and via direct mail.
Still today, relatively few people look to the internet for their news. TV remains king. Most of the internet sites, whether right or left, are essentially preaching to the choir. The radical views and personal attacks that appear on most of those sites are rarely seen by the majority of people.
By comparison, the negative Obama ads have focused on McCain's policies. Few, if any, have attacked his character. The majority of McCain's ads have attacked Obama personally. There is a significant qualitative difference.
B
14 - doctormiguel
This is a good story...but I am confused with "Cities like Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia have a history of celebratory violence associated with sporting events, and there is concern that an Obama victory may be as likely to touch off rioting as an Obama defeat."
I believe the writer meant "a McCain victory may be as likely to touch off rioting as an Obama defeat"
15 - Baritone
Here's just three things I've heard about in the last 24 hours or so:
First - the ludicrous article posted here at BC by Selwyn the Dukester.
Second - Mail and email being circulated by christian fundamentalists claiming that an Obama presidency will result in atomic war, gay marriage in every state, and THE END OF THE FUCKING BOY SCOUTS!!! (You know, if the first of those things happened, would anybody left standing really give a shit about the other two?)
Third: A letter circulating around the Johnson County, Indiana courthouse refering to Obama as a "black Hitler." The "circulator" was the head of the Johnson County election commission.
I could have provided links to all of those things above, but it's late, and I'm tired. Your all on your own.
B
16 - Baritone
Doctor,
No. He had it right the first time.
B
17 - Jet
Baritone, you forgot the assinine one that Obama wasn't born in the U.S., so he can't be president... after all Hawaii isn't a state.
18 - Franco
#13 " Baritone
Tell us one thing about the Ayers/Obama connection that was NOT innuendo. And, tell us anything substantive regarding their relationship
That was my question Baritone. Do you always answer a question with a quesiton?
On December 21, 1997, Barack Obama wrote a short review of William Ayers’ book
Obama’s Weathermen Pals Should Worry You " Reported by and African American on National Review. I hope we don't here the cry of an "Uncle Tom" here.
It is nothing but innuendo. Innuendo is a very small baby step from a lie, for it certainly cannot be counted as truth.
Bullshit! You are not willing to look at the truth. Which is why after a close working relationship did Obama say that Ayers was just some guy in the negborhood. Why?? It is not the truth. And that’s what McCain and Palin are saying and asking why. I am asking and millions on the internet are asking why.
Come on Baritone, I have seen much more itellectual honesty out of you before. If you where honest about it now, you would be asking the same exact things if McCain was an unknown young Senator that had had this same relationship being exposed with him and say David Duke, and you can't deny it.
And if McCain said, oh hell, “he’s just a guy who happens to live in the neighborhood” you would be calling foul from the roof tops.
These are the questions that a presidential candidate should address. Because Bill Ayers is fare from some old dried up 60’s radical. He wanted then, and he wants right now the overthrow of the US government and so doses the ilk he sleeps and works with.
It is what his whole life is about and that is an indisputable fact. You can go to Bill Ayers own web site and she a full letter accountin for his trips to Venezuealy to laud Chavez, Castro and screem to the Caracas crowds donw with the US and and Long live the revolution. His last recorded trip was in 2006. You can check it out yourself.
Now, if David Duke had last attended and night cross burning in 2006 and spouted out about white power and controling that the black race, you and all of the MSM would be all over young unknown senetor McCain to fully explain his relsionship with Duke and no one would rest until McCain came up with full accounting on all quesitions.
How you would you feel if McCain tried to answer all of it with “I want to stay on the issues”. Pretty fucking weak answer wouldn’t you say.
Prairie Fire was written by Bill Ayers and his wife in 1974 which was only 15 years before both of them came out of hiding and started their current academic and teachings project which is exactly what they do today. Prairie Fire is what is in in thier hearts, minds, and the work they do today is for its ends. Nowone could work with them and not know this, that would be impossable.
William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire
The three links I proved here are the max number I can put in one post. I have 12 more of equal relevance but a starting point has to be establishing first.
I defy you to disclaim any of the asserting information on any of these three starting links. I kindly ask that you give it your same efforts as you would if it war a McCain/Duke connections in all relevant context.
19 - Franco
Corrected link for Prairie Fire for post #18.
William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire
20 - Bill B
So when Todds tale was thought to be true it was worthy of a "bc scoop", but when it was found to be false, and if had been even a tad more credible and gone on longer and possibly gotten someone killed in retribution, it's trivial.
Nice.
Also is the first line a mea culpa? NOT! - though it should be.
21 - Jet
For the last time, when Ayers was out being a "terrorist" Obama was EIGHT YEARS OLD
22 - Jet
Tell me something Franco:
Does writing an assigned book report in high school about Boris Yeltsin make me a communist.
Would a man who lived two doors down from John Wayne Gacy, and knew him enough to sit on his porch and share a neighborly cigarette make him a mass murderer of little boys too?
Does my defending Dave Nalle because he made a human mistake make me a right-wing Libertarian?
Does my being gay make everyone who ever agreed with anything I've written on this website a Faggot?
Does the fact that I worked the Campaign for Reelection of Gerald Ford for President and that I wrote an obituary for him here make me Republican?
This fucking guilt through association bullshit with Ayres is getting real old Franco... reeeeeeal old.
Of course now that I've made a valid point everyone'll ignore it.
but I'm used to that
23 - Lisa Solod Warren
Franco, You are scary.
24 - Lisa Solod Warren
Dave: Duh! Obama IS staying above the mudslinging. But McCain/Palin are not. THEY are slinging the mud right and left. Gleefully. That is just the point of my opinion piece Character, Assassinated and my comments. No one can control the internet. But Obama and his direct surrogats are above the fray. What some left wingers write about is their own game. McCain and his running mate are DIRECTLY responsible for what comes out of their own mouths. They and their surrogates have been saying the awful things, perpetuating the lies, beating the dead horse of Ayers etc to death and ratcheting up the hate. That is the point.
25 - All Mi T
just like the stuarts in Boston, its like
from Tobe to Joe Sixpack