While the veracity of the racially/politically motivated attack on a young white McCain staffer was still in doubt (see here and here for our previous coverage), Fox News executive vice president, John Moody, had this to say:

“If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee,” Moody wrote. “If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.” (emphasis added)

With all due respect to Mr. Moody, that is utter hogwash.

As we all now know, the matter has turned out to be a hoax. So is the McCain campaign over? Of course not, and it’s patently ridiculous to say that it is.

The discussion at the point is to the motivations of Todd. Is she disturbed? Was she trying to get attention? Was she trying to inflame racial tension against Obama? With the available data it would appear that the correct answer is “all of the above”. No sane person scars their own face, certainly not a young woman. Additionally she had the advantage of getting a ton of attention, with reports initially saying that both the McCain and Obama campaigns had inquired as to her wellbeing when they found out about the “attack”. But it’s entirely too disingenous to suppose that she made up the attack for no purpose. She’s a paid staffer for McCain and she specifically made the story about a large black man attacking a young white woman because she was a McCain supporter, adding that he had fondled her breast for good measure. 70 years ago, this sort of thing got black men lynched. She wanted to inflame racial anger against Obama, thinking it would favor her candidate.

However blaming the McCain campaign, much less John McCain himself, for this is complete madness. What if the report had been true? Would it reflect badly on Obama? Of course not. Even Michelle Malkin, showing remarkable restraint and reason, noted that if true the attack meant nothing about Obama himself. Many of her allies on the right could learn from her example of restraint. Unless there is some proof that Todd was purposfully instructed or incited to do this by the McCain campaign, it has no more meaning than that of a disturbed woman trying to cause havok. Even if it could be shown that some local McCain group had purposfully orchestrated the event (and I haven’t seen any evidence of that) it still wouldn’t on McCain’s head, as long as he summarily fired all of them and condemned the tactic.

Now Memeorandum’s top story is that saying that a McCain spokesman had a rather suspiciously detailed account of the “attack” before all the facts were even known. That is, it would appear that he had priveledged information that even the police didn’t know beforehand. The implication is obviously that the McCain campaign had previous knowledge of the hoax and therefore is a participant.

Assuming that the report is accurate I’m still not seeing a smoking gun. Oh it seems clear that the spokesman wanted to incite outrage against Obama as a result of the attack, but I don’t see any clear evidence he must have had previous knowledge that would be impossible to have beforehand. Todd did not initially go to the police, but to a friends house, according to her own version. She’s a paid staffer for the McCain campaign. It’s perfectly possible that while staging the attack she called her McCain office before the police, so they could make use of the “attack”. Such an incendiary story would quickly make it’s way to headquarters, so it’s not a huge shock that a McCain spokesman could have the story before the police did. She fed it to them. They, knowing she was a McCain supporter, believed her and communicated it to the press. I see it as more likely that the McCain campaign is a victim of Todd, not a collaborator.

Accusing a campaign of staging something like this is a very serious thing. Inciting racial hatred is despicable and rightly rejected by almost everyone. Since the charge is very serious I believe the evidence had better be very strong. Unless better evidence comes forward, I think it’s fair to close this as an incident caused by a hateful and disturbed individual and move on.