This Ashley Todd chick needed to make her world view a reality.

[Writer]

That's why she faked this attack. In her world, she's under siege by difference. By people telling her to think about America as a collective instead of a pluralist mish-mash of self-interests and religious psycho-babble. She likely saw the growth in Obama's popularity and felt powerless, and in doing so, ascribed fantasies of a racially-charged mob to the large flocks of Obama supporters attending rallies. As the weeks wound down to days, and in turn hours, her frustration of not seeing her beliefs about Obama supporters come to fruition grew to a fever-pitch. She probably obsessed over needing to expose what she saw as the "truth" about Obama's campaign, and arrived at a point when she could not withstand one more moment of no real evidence expressing what she deeply believed to be the case. So she faked this attack, partly as a means to damage the reputation of the Obama campaign, and partly in order to satisfy her need to associate Obama with danger and social disruption in a very real, tangible way.



Or she could just be bat-shit crazy. Take your pick.

~Writer, the Armchair Psychologist~

[madaboutharry]

1. Both of your theories could be correct.

n/t

[d00mzday]

2. I guess she won't be touring with Joe The Plumber?

[daninthemoon]

3. bat-shitcrazy rascist hate-monger. i don't give a fuck if she's ill.

she could have gotten someone killed. throw her ass under the jail. and I'm writing this as a pretty damn compassionate liberal who thinks the jails are way over-used. what she did was wicked.

[shadowknows69]

4. A little from column A, a little from column B

[sohndrsmith]

5. She did. It's called racism and it IS a reality. n/t

[SmokingJacket]

6. I think she's a Compulsive Liar

I've known a few -- they lie to make themselves feel important. For about 12 hours, she felt like the most important person in the world. It was probably worth it to her, even with getting arrested.

And these people are often Republican, because they're cynical -- they think that EVERYONE lies like they do, for attention and to feel good. They don't believe that there are people like Barack Obama who honestly want to make the world better. They think that Obama MUST have a secret agenda... and it probably has to do with his being black.

So she probably believes that what she did was technically "a mistake," but that it was basically the right thing to do, because she was trying to help McCain, who she sees as someone who justifies her tactics...

[sohndrsmith]

7. if she sliced her face open, I would lean more towards mental illness

being the catalyst, but she planned this out (poorly) and made sure she barely scratched herself. It was political, racist and calculated. Irrational doesn't equate mental illness, nor does stupidity. She committed a serious crime.

That said, I would argue that racism IS a form of mental illness... but there is no excuse for this. I'm afraid the "mental illness" attribution will minimize the seriousness of her actions, even though I agree she clearly needs counseling, putting her in a "victim" role, which I do not believe is deserved or accurate. Until/unless racism is a clinically recognized and diagnosable disease, that is. After all, is it anything other than _sick_??

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Sliced her face open?

Oh lawd.

[sohndrsmith]

10. well, maybe that is a little too graphic, but if she did actually harm

herself significantly, then that would indicate (to me) that her motivations could be due to mental instability rather than politically, racist, planned calculation.

No? I certainly could be wrong (I am on a regular basis) but the puzzle pieces lead to ugly deliberate criminality in an attempt to affect an election (however stupid), rather than mental illness as the primary catalyst. Even sane, intelligent people do very stupid things - even commit very stupid crimes. People who commit murder aren't automatically designated as mentally ill, (although this might be worth debating) so I'm not sure why the designation would apply here.

And I do think that the fact that she was so careful not to injure herself (those scratches look like they barely could have hurt for goodness sake - except for a momentary sting) is extremely meaningful regarding her "sanity" level.

[CJCRANE]

9. "Creating reality" is the Rovepublican way nt