# McCain Supporter Attacked? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 23, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272 "2008-10-23T23:23:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/61 "2008-10-24T16:02:56Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > There is no attempted sexual assault to joke about. The joke is the lie that this young woman is telling about a mugger taking the time to feel up her breast. What is this, a 6-4 200 pound 12 year old? I fail to see how a mugger feeling up a victim is a joking matter, whether the allegation is credible or not. If the allegation is unfounded, the inclusion of a sexual assault makes the matter more serious instead of less so. I think that a false report of sexual assualt just encourages misogyny. I have been groped by adult men against my will when I was in situations that they rightly determined that it would be impossible or at least bloody awkward for me to do anything. Once was during a charity casino night during college. The place was packed and I was running a roulette table. Since all that was at stake was play money, I had no protection from people crowding me. One asshole repeatedly came up to me and groped. He laughed at me trying to kick him and my yelling at him was not distinguishable in the noise. I was angry, but knowing that this guy was someone’s dad and not a campus regular, and I would never have to interact with him again. I did nothing other than, when I had caught the attention of some other volunteers who made him leave my table without raising a stink. I hope that he has not done worse to others than he did to me. It was infurating, and I think it might have been more traumatic for someone of a more delicate nature. Adult men do grope breasts, no matter how juvenile you find the behavior. It does happen. Now what if someone had been found nearby who matched her description? Her allegation makes the consequences much more severe. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/62 "2008-10-24T16:06:50Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > I believe that \*\*Shodan \*\*was implying through irony that this woman is full of shit. Which means that this woman is very clearly, nay… indisputably and undeniably, full of shit. I think so too, but I won’t hold it against McCain and McCain supporters, but I think the responses to her have been ugly and in some cases extremly inappropriate. It is a police matter now, and I assume they will handle it. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/63 "2008-10-24T16:11:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Could also be Baldwin, by a Constitution Party voter. Or an actor jealous of his more successful brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/64 "2008-10-24T16:13:24Z")
> [@lee](#): > > Adult men do grope breasts, no matter how juvenile you find the behavior. It does happen. Of course it does. Adult men often do worse as well. What is vastly different here is the incongruity between the context and behavior. Assholes will grope breasts in crowds and at parties. Here, a guy reportedly is so far beyond reason that he will cut a letter into a woman’s face, but the extent of his sexual assault is to reach up her shirt and feel her breast? It’s sheer nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/65 "2008-10-24T16:16:11Z")
Nobody’s making light of sexual assault itself, **lee** , they’re making fun of this woman for telling an improbable story that appears to be unravelling. Whether she told a story that sounds serious or one that doesn’t, it looks very much like she made the whole thing up. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/66 "2008-10-24T16:23:48Z")
Regardless of the outcome, I don’t like the fact that she’s been subjected to a polygraph. The polygraph is bogus at best if not downright bullshit. I’ve read countless stories of people applying for government jobs and being accused of being drug dealers. This, by the way, is a major obstacle for joining the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, etc. If the examiner thinks you’re lying, then you’re done. It’s essentially a five-hour long mind-game with little to do with the actual machine itself. I don’t know how police do it though. Police have to prove something that will withstand a higher level of scrutiny. The CIA, etc, can just not hire you and be done with it. That black eye doesn’t look real either. When was this supposed to have happened? Black eyes start out red then turn black. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/67 "2008-10-24T16:24:08Z")
From a [Google cache of her MySpace page](http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:dNPAoAhExjwJ:profile.myspace.com/index.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser.viewprofile%26friendID%3D8513159+www.myspace.com/rabbitrocker&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a) from October 18th: “Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her cloths off, but its better if you do.” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/68 "2008-10-24T16:27:37Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > Regardless of the outcome, I don’t like the fact that she’s been subjected to a polygraph. The polygraph is bogus at best if not downright bullshit. I’ve read countless stories of people applying for government jobs and being accused of being drug dealers. This, by the way, is a major obstacle for joining the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, etc. If the examiner thinks you’re lying, then you’re done. It’s essentially a five-hour long mind-game with little to do with the actual machine itself. So don’t the cops know that? ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/69 "2008-10-24T16:28:36Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Frankly, the last bit sounds like something someone who thinks that black guys are oversexed and would necessarily want to fondle some white breasts might say. This, to me is a very important aspect of the seemingly false report of assault to the police, beyond whether there’s an attempt to influence opinion about the election. Whether it was thought through to this degree or not, it brings up the spectre of the black man as angry/sexually predatory/a boogeyman. It also brings up all the ugliness and the play on assumptions visited during the cases of Susan Smith, the man in Boston who killed his wife and stabbed himself (I believe in the 80s), and others who diverted attention away from themselves by blaming black men for crimes they themselves or others have committed. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/70 "2008-10-24T16:29:00Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > She’s got quite a shiner going there, so I’m going to assume for now that some sort of assault did take place. There’s too little to the story as it stands to draw any further conclusions. > > Now, as to whether right-wing talk will be all over this story like a cheap suit tomorrow, I feel pretty confident the answer is “Hell, Yeah”! The meme’s too great to resist: African-American racist criminals want Obama in the White House! That shiner looks about two days old… no swelling at all and hardly any marks on the cheek with the B… ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/71 "2008-10-24T16:33:02Z")
It probably wasn’t even related to the bumper sticker. The mugger probably noticed the Texas license plate. Clearly, despite his reprobate behavior, he is at heart a basically decent citizen trying to do his part to keep the streets of Pittsburgh safely clear of all Texans, except for Casey Hampton. The “B” obviously stands for the neighborhood in which this Texan was branded, and which her fellow Texans will now be warned to avoid: “Bloomfilled.” ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/72 "2008-10-24T16:34:32Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Of course it does. Adult men often do worse as well. > > What is vastly different here is the incongruity between the context and behavior. Assholes will grope breasts in crowds and at parties. > > Here, a guy reportedly is so far beyond reason that he will cut a letter into a woman’s face, but the extent of his sexual assault is to reach up her shirt and feel her breast? It’s sheer nonsense. Well, in the late 80s, around the time that the word stalker was just beginning to come into the public awareness, there was some attacker, I think in California, that was going about and pinning women down so they were helpless and licking their breasts through their clothing, nothing more. It received national attention because police said there was no crime and being very dismissive, and the women were scared and pissed and said there damn well ought to be a law, and you ought to care because what if he does more than lick next time? I seem to remember an LA Law episode referencing similar behavior and possibly a made for TV movie. ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/73 "2008-10-24T16:36:15Z")
[http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6076307.html](http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6076307.html) Story is changing. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/74 "2008-10-24T16:46:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Nobody’s making light of sexual assault itself, **lee** , they’re making fun of this woman for telling an improbable story that appears to be unravelling. Whether she told a story that sounds serious or one that doesn’t, it looks very much like she made the whole thing up. The phrase “to almost get to second base” and “What is this, a 6-4 200 pound 12 year old?” do just that. Sexual assault need not follow any set pattern, and to attack this person’s credibility on the basis of the alleged sexual assault not meeting the expected criteria is odious, and with all the other inconsistencies, completely unneccessary to making the point that she appears to be fabricating the whole story. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/75 "2008-10-24T16:47:17Z")
From the link posted by **Burton** : > [@](#): > > Todd, who is white, now says she was knocked unconscious and doesn’t remember being cut in the face. She now says she only discovered the wound later. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/76 "2008-10-24T16:51:11Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Said shiner though is showing up a wee bit too soon, and there’s no swelling, and her eyes are wide open. It wouldn’t be hard to create something like that with common eye make-up. In addition, I’ve never seen a black eye where scleral hemorrhage was absent. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/77 "2008-10-24T16:54:58Z")
I thought the most important part of **Burton** ’s post is that the bank surveillance footage doesn’t show her using the ATM in the first place. Fair point about the groping outside the shirt, **lee**. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/78 "2008-10-24T16:56:10Z")
This is the insanest election EVAR. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/79 "2008-10-24T16:56:19Z")
> [@5-4-Fighting](#): > > It also brings up all the ugliness and the play on assumptions visited during the cases of Susan Smith, the man in Boston who killed his wife and stabbed himself (I believe in the 80s), and others who diverted attention away from themselves by blaming black men for crimes they themselves or others have committed. Ahh…Jesse Anderson, we barely knew ye. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272/80 "2008-10-24T17:07:57Z")
> [@Burton](#): > > [Client Challenge](http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6076307.html) > > Story is changing. From the story: > [@](#): > > The student, Ashley Todd, of College Station, Texas… Oh snap she’s an Aggie. That explains why she didn’t realize the B would be backwards when she carved it on her face. :eek: :o _Disclaimer: Not all Aggies are stupid, especially not the beautiful and talented one I’m married to._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-supporter-attacked/469272.md?page=5)