Ashley Todd, meet Charles Stuart:

NOW (1, 2):

[Ashley] Todd, who is white, told police she was attacked by a 6-foot-4 black man Wednesday night.

“She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her.

Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from College Station, Texas, admitted Friday that the story was false and was being charged with making a false report to police ...

THEN:

On Oct. 23, 1989, Charles and Carol Stuart left childbirth classes at the hospital. Moments later, Charles Stuart called police on his cellphone to report he and his wife had just been shot. Carol Stuart died that night - their son 17 days later. Charles Stuart told police a black man had shot them. The police promptly began a manhunt in the largely black Roxbury neighborhood that the Irishman picked up in the Parkman case would have understood only too well.

As the Boston Globe put it at the time: "Two weeks ago, Carol and Charles Stuart were merely expectant parents. Then their relatively anonymous, happy lives came to an end on a dark side street in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood. An assailant robbed them of their jewelry and money, then pumped a few slugs into their bodies."

Only it turned out that while they might have been anonymous, they were not happy. Charles Stuart was having an affair and had money problems. No black man had come near them - Charles Stuart shot his wife, then himself.

But none of that matters to some on the right. Here's Jenn Q Public:

It doesn’t matter whether Ashley was genuinely attacked for her political beliefs. What counts is that the story seems entirely plausible, and that’s scary. It’s entirely believable that an Obama supporter would viciously maim a McCain volunteer because we expect that behavior from people who delight in smearing the minor children of politicians.

Even if Ashley’s story proves to be completely false, ask yourself whether you believe it could happen. Do you want to vote with people you expect to physically attack their political opposites, or against them?

If something is "plausible", in the right-wing world, it's as good as being true.


posted by Quiddity at 10/25/2008 01:52:00 AM