I do not feel sorry for this young woman...

[Renaissance Man]

.. at all.

As a black male, I do not have any compassion for this woman. Black men have lost their lives for hoaxes created based on some notion of an "overly aggressive, physically dominant" black male fictitiously harming white women. If her mental health is suffering, then perhaps she should stay way from political campaigns and seek psychological help.

Anyone who doesn't think this wasn't intentional is looking at this with blinders on. McCain's numbers are tanking and he's posting up his "last stand" in Pennsylvania (of all places), and this fictitious attack occurred in Pittsburgh (of all places), and then all of a sudden, it's because she's mental?

I call bullshit. She knew exactly what she was doing, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone put her up to this.

[louis-t]

1. Much like John Wilkes Booth

she thought she would be a hero.

[Snotcicles]

2. An apprentice fabricator just trying to work her way up the republican food chain. nt

[Divernan]

3. She has a history of dirty little games with the College Republicans

Little games like "Shoot the Democratic Leaders" and "Catch the Immigrants" at her little Texas college. She is the latest edition of Karl Rove, who was the originator of the GOP's dirty tricks campaign committee when he was in college. I got this from HuffPost:

Salon was able to find some of Todd's personal Web pages, which we're not linking to in order to protect her privacy. What appears to be her MySpace page, which gives her age as 23 rather than 20, is private. But the quote at the top of it is visible -- it reads, "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her cloths off, but its better if you do."

[hlthe2b]

4. I agree with you...

She needs to be made accountable in a way that sends a message... If others were involved in putting her up to this fraud, they need to be exposed in as public a way as possible and prosecuted. This is not a youthful prank.

[kwolf68]

5. I agree

She was 21, in college, politically active. She had to know the agenda behind her actions, and that was to race-bait the electorate into voting against a black man, a black man who just happens to be one of the most impressive candidates this nation has offered in DECADES, or longer. Just how impressive is to be seen.

She tried to take him down simply because of the color of his skin. Our nation is moving past all that, but we still have a ways to go.

[DangerDave921]

6. Duke accuser

Same deal. She should have been prosecuted for making up lies about rape. I hate phone race-based crimes of all sorts!

Now the Duke accuser is pushing a book! Amazing.

[Youphemism]

7. I have empathy but mental health is neither a legal nor a moral excuse. She knew it was wrong....

There's nothing wrong with having empathy for anyone with an affliction. I try to do that for anyone.

But I don't find any conflict with a combination of empathy and scorn. This person must live her life on the lower rung of humanity to plot this, let alone carry it out. And, given her plan and her execution of it, she's on the lower rung of the intelligence scale, too.

I can't multitask very well in other ways. But sure, I hope she gets help for her problems. I hope she gets punished for what she did. And I hope she falls into a vat of manure on top of all that.

A person can be mentally defective and still be a twit.

[hamsterjill]

8. Agreed

This was a very dangerous stunt and it could have gotten out of hand very quickly. She's taking a page from the book of Susan Smith, and she needs to be held accountable.

If it's mental health help that she needs, then I hope she gets it, but I would tend to question someone with real mental health issues being able to make up a story like that all on her own. Possible, I guess, but probable...I don't think so.

[cynatnite]

9. It was malicious.

I don't feel sorry for her either. It was intentional race baiting and I hope she's fully prosecuteed.

[cynatnite]

10. n/t

[LostinVA]

11. I've only seen one or two posters on here who think she is "innocent"

[always_saturday]

12. As a white female, I think she should be charged with a hate crime.

I have zero sympathy much less compassion for her. I agree, she knew exactly what she was doing.

[TheDonkey]

14. I actually think you are right. PA does have special Hate Crime laws

[chappydog26]

21. I'm with you

This is such bullshit. When are we, as a country, ever going to get over this archaic way of thinking?

[TheDonkey]

13. I agree 100%. She's a criminal. Racism/Ignorance/loathsomeness does not equal

mentally ill. She knew very well what she was doing and the consequences should be swift and severe. It sickens me what she was "hoping" to accomplish... if only she wasn't dumb enough to draw the B in a mirror.

[Left Is Write]

15. I'm with you.

I don't buy the "mentally disturbed" excuse either. I do have sympathy for people with real mental illnesses, but I think Ashley Todd is just a hateful person who knew exactly what she was doing and why.

Nope. Don't feel sorry for her.

[grantcart]

16. there could have been a false arrest - resistance - gun fire and a riot

its a crime and she needs to go to jail.

counseling afterwards

we will get these Republicans interested in prison reform one by one

(my congressman is a federal prisoner right now and I am sure that he is more sympathetic than he was before)

[msallied]

17. She doesn't have a mental health problem in the traditional sense. She has a personality disorder.

This doesn't make her unable to distinguish between right and wrong. She deserves no sympathy for being a histrionic sociopath.

[graywarrior]

18. Yes, she did know what she was doing.

She's vindictive and revengeful, spoiled and probably mentally ill. Mental illness does not excuse what she did. Even when I was nuts at her age, I knew exactly what damage I was causing. I knew it and I did it anyway. Drunk driving is a crime even though the drunk has the disease of alcoholism. If he/she hits or kills someone, he/she is totally responsible for it. No matter what.

[noiretextatique]

19. i don't feel the least bit sorry for her either

people get killed over accusations like this. just think of what might have happened if her story had lingered a few days or weeks before she was discredited. i feel nothing but disgust for this person.

[gulfcoastliberal]

20. She's a beastly, nasty, and ugly person - inside & out.

What a foul creature.

[pamela]

22. I feel sorry for Emmett Till.

Till would be around McCain's age today. I've been thinking a lot about him today and the picture of what his face looked like after his murderers were finished with him. I have no sympathy for the Ashley Todds, Susan Smiths and Carolyn Bryants of the world. This incident could have gotten very ugly, very fast and no one can tell me that a white girl from Texas didn't know that. Fuck her.

[roguevalley]

23. I agree with you Rennaissance Man because that was the first thing

I thought of around my dread at hearing of this.

[nini]

24. But the Dr Frists of DU have diagnosed her as mentally ill

so the rest of us just need to shut the fuck up.

:sarcasm:


I think she may be a bit of a drama queen and perhaps has issue because not just everyone goes the extent she did, BUT she was fueled by racism.

I don't have the time to worry about her.