The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #115401 Message #2475482
Posted By: Azizi
24-Oct-08 - 09:35 PM
Thread Name: BS: Colin Powell supports Obama
Subject: RE: BS: Colin Powell supports Obama
It's not surprising that the story about the mugging/mutilation hoax is getting a lot of coverage in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburghers have been known to talk down our city, But we don't like it when non-Pittsburghers talk bad about us.
The racial situation is fragile enough in Pittsburgh-and in other parts of the USA-without folks trying to stoke those fires. By far the largest population of color in Pittsburgh are African Americans. Unlike the more than 3 times larger city of Philadelphia {some 6 1/2 hours away from Pittsburgh}, and unlike the smaller capital city of Harrisburg {about 4 hours away from Pittsburgh}, there are very few Latinos in Pittsburgh. African Americans are only about 24% of the population of the city of Pittsburgh and about 12% of the county. And a lot of African Americans in Pittsburgh are strugglin. But a lot of White people in Pittsburgh are strugglin too. And, while there are some racial tensions, for the most part we are trying to get along with each other and survive these bad times the best we can.
Pittsburghers don't mind making the news for good things-our beautiful scenary, our sports teams, our commitments to the arts and pioneering health interventions like kidney transplant surgery. We knew that Pittsburgh was an important city for either John McCain or Barack Obama to win. We knew that both of these candidates would come to court our votes. But who would have thought that Pittsburgh would make the news in this way?
Here's the bottom line-Ashley Todd lied. She said that she was mugged and had a letter carved on her face because of her support for John McCain. She lied. She described her attacker as a 6'4" Black man. She lied. During her later talks with the police, Ashley Todd said that she had been sexually assaulted by the Black man who had robbed her and carved an upside down "B" on her cheek. She lied. None of Ashley Todd's story was true. Thankfully, in one day Ashley Todd admitted that she was lying. And thankfully, no one was directly harmed by her lies except for her {and, potentially, the McCain-Palin campaign}. But in the not at all distant past, Black people have been killed because of such stories.
Ashley Todd lied because she thought that inciting racial fears and anger would benefit the McCain campaign. The McCain campaign are on record as pushing this story. Now they're probably sorry that they did.
Am I the only one that sees the karmic elements of this story? You have John McCain indicating that he has to win Pennsylvania. And Western Pennsylvania is absolutely crucial to that win. Then you have a Democratic representative from Western Pennsylvania making a statement on the record that Western Pennsylvania has got a lot of racist people {echoing a similar statement about the entire state that Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, had made during the Democratic primary}. Then you have the McCain campaign including John McCain oozing distain for Barack Obama with McCain's "That One" statement and Sarah Palin's rallies stroking the fires of racial and religious division and condoning supporters' out and out racism.
And then you have Ashley Todd...from Texas of all places-the adopted home of almost invisible President George Bush. Enter Ashley Todd, a young Republican who had only been in Pittsburgh for something like two weeks working the telephones for John McCain and at some point hatching this foolish and dangerous scheme that she might have thought would help John McCain win Pennsylvania. Maybe Ashley Todd is just mentally ill, and wanted her 15 minutes of fame or more than 15 minutes like Joe the Plumber is receiving on the Fox News television, and the right wing radio talk show circuit. But if she is just sick, why did she attempt to stroke the racial and political fires by alleging that her attacker was a Black Obama supporter?
Did John McCain and Sarah Palin have a chance of winning Western Pennsylvania before this hoax? Yes. The campaign probably wouldn't have won the city of Pittsburgh. But it might have been possible for the Republicans to win in the Western Pennsylvania counties. However, in my opinion, the McCain-Palin campaign's chances of winning have significantly decreased because of Ashley Todd's disgusting and dangerous hoax.