http://www.atlargely.com/2008/10/mccain-campaign.htmlMcCain campaign over as is Drudge's career...Well then, take a gander:
John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."
Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.
The KDKA reporter had called McCain's campaign office for details after seeing the story -- sans details -- teased on Drudge.
The McCain spokesperson's claims -- which came in the midst of extraordinary and heated conversations late yesterday between the McCain campaign, local TV stations, and the Obama camp, as the early version of the story rocketed around the political world -- is significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time.
The claims to KDKA from the McCain campaign were included in an early story that ran late yesterday on KDKA's Web site. The paragraphs containing these assertions were quickly removed from the story after the Obama campaign privately complained that KDKA was letting the McCain campaign spin a racially-charged version of the story before the facts had been established, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
Forget the woman who made this up for a moment. The two bigger questions are:
Was the McCain campaign behind the creation of this hoax? (because how could they have the details of the case, enough to create an even more incendiary version of the story, before all the facts were known?)
If the McCain camp was not behind this attack, then why was their most immediate concern not for the victim, but instead, for how to best make a tragic (if true) situation that could split the nation over the issue of racism into a political score for themselves?
The McCain campaign is over. Period. I don't care what the explanation is, a leader does not pour gasoline on a racial fire for any reason. A leader's first concern would be how to best deal with the crisis and how to best help the victim, while minimizing the anger in both the white and black communities. A leader does not rape a nation for a score. John McCain is not a leader. He is an opportunist, at best.
Oh, and Drudge should finally be flushed from the inter-tubes. His 15 minutes of blue-dress fame should have ended years ago. You don't run a story this potentially damaging to the community without doing actual checking of the facts. You don't publish this rubbish unless you are a paid propagandist, which of course we know Drudge is.
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