The Moderate Voice - Latest Comments in Strange fruit

Re: Strange fruit

StockBoySF — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:55:51 -0000

Lynx: "I call this as the act of a hateful and disturbed individual and possibly the overzealous exploitation of a local campaign group. I submit that McCain should suffer no ill consequence for the acts of a few insane and stupid people on his staff..."

We should pity the woman with mental problems who perpetrated this and the law will deal with her appropriately. As far as what you term the "overzealous exploitation of a local campaign group".... I disagree with you. The furtherance of this is by the PA communications director (not very "local" in my book). And PA is a huge swing state that McCain hopes to win. One would expect the communications director in such a state to be mature enough to show good judgement. If this were a one-off incident with the McCain campaign, then I'd be willing to give the guy (and McCain) a second chance. However the McCain campaign has this pattern of linking Obama to terrorists, etc. McCain is running a divisive campaign. This is just one more example of the campaign's tactics. McCain should be held responsible for setting this tone, because he does allow it to happen.

By the way, has the McCain campaign apologized for jumping the gun on this? I think it's too much to ask for them to apologize for pushing "facts" that the police didn't even mention.... but at least the campaign could apologize for jumping the gun.

Re: Strange fruit

JSpencer — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:25:59 -0000

Just a few comments: As soon as I saw the photo of Todd I was 90% sure the B was self-inflicted. This is one of the few times M. Malkin and I shared the same instinct. If that happens again I'll start getting a little worried. ;-)

As for the two videos (Nevada and Colorado McCain/Palin crowds)... what a celebration of ignorance. The best single word description might be, "demented". It is my sincere hope they represent only a small portion of the republican party, otherwise the R's are in bigger trouble than I thought they were.

As an aside, one of my three yard signs was vandalized last night, or more accurately, "melted" - while the other two were left alone. Fortunately I was prepared for just such an event and have my back-up out there already. The cowardly varmints are lucky I didn't catch em in the act!

Re: Strange fruit

Lynx — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:44:50 -0000

I certainly hope this sad chapter in the presidential race does not hurt the McCain campaign. If it does I'm fairly convinced it would be completely unfair. It's a very dark insinuation, that people with McCain's campaign had previous knowledge, privileged knowledge, of the attack.
That people within the campaign were willing to use this event to incite racial strife is disgusting but nowhere near as sinister as what seems to be being implied.
I call this as the act of a hateful and disturbed individual and possibly the overzealous exploitation of a local campaign group. I submit that McCain should suffer no ill consequence for the acts of a few insane and stupid people on his staff, just as Obama would not deserve backlash if some demented loon had in fact attacked an McCain supporter on political/racial grounds.

Re: Strange fruit

jstuart1031 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:37:41 -0000

Makes you wonder if some teenagers read Mayella Ewell's case as a warning or a blueprint. That's the logic of SERE applied to a pretty common cultural lesson.

Re: Strange fruit

Jill Miller Zimon — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:36:19 -0000

Elrod, I think you do justice to exactly how deep this goes. Slight tangent but similar reactions: the Hit A Jew Day situation in St. Louis. People tossing it off as kids being kids. No, absolutely not. And for reasons related to prejudice and anti-Semitism analogous to what you describe here related to race.

I was just looking at electoral maps from NBC and have to say, McCain and Palin decided to campaign by telling voters how much they love "real America." Based on the electoral maps today, it looks as though "real America" is a much smaller piece of land with a lot smaller population than they counted on.

Re: Strange fruit

T-Steel — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:08:30 -0000

Crazy woman looking for attention... Eager beavers breaking the story... Stupidity flies around... Hoax... Pie on the face...

America! What a country! :-)

Re: Strange fruit

Marsh — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:05:03 -0000

dup delete

Re: Strange fruit

elrod — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:00:07 -0000

jstacey,
You do realize that you could do the same thing with partisan and relatively uninformed Republicans too. A lot of politics is tribal affiliation. I talk to lots of Republicans here in East Tennessee who seem to agree with me on the important issues. But they'll vote for McCain because he's a Republican and these people have voted Republican since the 1860s. Blacks in Harlem are no different that way than whites in East Tennessee. Also, blacks in Harlem would have responded the same way if Clinton were the nominee.

Being a tribal affiliater with a party is no sin. It's as old as the Jacksonian party system.

But being a public bigot on camera is another matter.

Re: Strange fruit

elrod — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:56:14 -0000

Let me reiterate here that the my biggest beef is with the media for blowing this up without getting the facts. TPM shows pretty conclusively that McCain's PA communications director pushed this story before the facts came in.

Ashley Todd is a pathetic and disturbed woman - though somehow you'd think she was "vetted" beforehand.

But the backstory to this sort of thing is real. Todd may be a lunatic, but accusations of black-on-white woman crime are loaded with historical grievance.

Re: Strange fruit

Marsh — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:42:33 -0000

"Today, she admitted that she made the story up.
Why?
She’s mentally ill. But she’s also a PAID staffer for McCain - not just some off-the-street volunteer."

Could someone please point me to the article or source that indicates Todd was a "paid staffer"? Everything I've read indicates she was a volunteer.

Re: Strange fruit

Jazz — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:11:59 -0000

When this story first came out, I avoided posting about it. However, I did send a couple of e-mails to Republican friends and informed them that I was calling shenanigans on it. The whole thing was just too convenient and had too many glaring holes in it. However, it just didn't strike me as a political campaign story. Let us, for a moment, pretend that the story had somehow been real. Does that say something about the Obama campaign? No. It says something about a violent, disturbed criminal in Pittsburgh. And once it was proven false, does that suddenly make it a campaign story? Again, no. It's the story of one deranged woman who will be facing police charges and is obviously in need of some help and who is desperate for attention. (Cutting yourself is an all too common theme with disturbed young people.)

Unfortunately, these sorts of things happen all the time in campaigns and the media -both old and new - keep falling into the trap. With so many real issues facing us it is sad that we waste our time on nutjobs like these people.

Re: Strange fruit

Michael Merritt — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:08:57 -0000

I hope the campaign official story isn't true.

Because if it is, I think I'm going to be sick.

Re: Strange fruit

AustinRoth — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:01:32 -0000

Elrod -

Where to begin?

This screed on how Republicans are racist because of a mentally ill woman, in a hoax that even the evil Michelle Malkin immediately denounced? And the fact she was a paid staffer does not imply towards the campaign or the other staff that there is systemic racism. Mentally ill is mentally ill.

However, it does say something about their screening process, at least at the local level.

Re: Strange fruit

sunshine7c43 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:21:09 -0000

Click here for Obama supporters:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Strange fruit

sunshine7c43 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:20:17 -0000

No question, McCain supporters are no good.

Obama supporters, on the other hand are well informed:
http://www.thespoof.com/mag...

For latest Palin bombshell:
http://www.thespoof.com/mag...