Fox News exec: It's over

Yesterday, that ever so reliable news source Matt Drudge put a story on his website screaming that a John McCain campaign worker had been attacked in Pittsburgh. Her name is Ashley Todd, she's from College Station, Texas; and had flown in to the Keystone State to get out votes in the battleground of Pennsylvania. Apparently, someone had subdued her at an ATM and carved a "B" into her cheek -- in reverse. And yes, she's white; and her attacker was "black."

Fortunately, some of the more established bloggers including Michelle Malkin on the right (a Barack Obama hater if there ever was one) and Wonkette on the left (very friendly but for rather "subtle" reasons, for those familiar with Wonkette) became more than a bit suspicious. Finally this afternoon, Todd admitted she made the whole story up and had carved the B on her face herself. (Source: AP)

John Moody, EVP at Fox News, said last night this was a watershed event. If Todd's claims were true, it could swing the undecided votes McCain's way and he could still pull off a narrow win (given such undecideds would conclude the Obama Army was nothing but a gang of thugs). If it was false, then McCain had lost whatever remaining credibility he had left because it would show that the McCain Militia had gotten so desperate they would concoct a truly wicked lie. That even an exec at Fox News -- the network that colluded to ensure Dubya stole the election in 2000 -- had called Todd's bluff show perhaps not so much the network has finally matured from a right-wing comedy channel to a legitimate news organization (they're still far from the latter); but rather a recognition on their part "the times they are a-changing" and even they are powerless to stop it. Moody's right (no pun intended). People are sick and tired of eight years of dirty tricks and they don't want sixteen more, or even four more.

Well we know the truth now. Don't know if this really is Obama's breakout moment, but to think it happened in Pittsburgh, one of the birthplaces of the American labour movement and a lot of US history along with it -- and by a representative of a candidate so thoroughly against organized labour made a fool of herself and Team Red.

There's no proof that McCain or Sarah Palin would have authorized this kind of "race bating" but this stunt will almost certainly backfire; it will make many of their other most loyal supporters look back to independents and they'll now rush out to support Obama-Biden.

And to think that it happened at Three Rivers ...

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.