Alleged Attack on McCain Supporter Update

The 20-year-old McCain campaign volunteer who claimed a black man attacked her, robbed her, and carved a B into her face has confessed to inventing the story.

My original post on this story is here.

This thread will not be used for making disparaging remarks about the young woman, who is quite evidently extremely troubled and in need of help. Nor will it be used to try to cast her as emblematic of women, the rightwing, or young Republicans. That's not to say she did not do something very seriously wrong; it was criminal, and it was racist, and it was dangerous for a whole fuckload of reasons. Let's just be careful in our commenting that we bear in mind she is clearly in psychological distress and doesn't "prove" anything about any group.

As for the people who tried to use this story to score political points, whether it was the rightwingers who were howling about evil Obama supporters on the presumption it was true, leftwingers who were (and are) howling about McCain supporters on the presumption it was false, men who were (and are) howling about women on the presumption it was concocted, or women who were howling about physical attacks on women being the inevitable result of Obama's nomination on the presumption of its veracity—a shameful display all around, really.

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