It broke earlier this week that Nancy Takehara, 58, was canvassing for the Obama campaign in Wisconsin, when a man, now identified as 71 year-old Ronald Goetsch, accused her of working for ACORN, grabbed her hair, and struck her.  

At first glance it may sound similar to the Todd case, but in this instance we have an actual confession from the attacker.

Obama spoke directly to Nancy to check on her health, although the campaign has not released any official statement, other than to say that they take the safety of their campaign staff very seriously.

Here’s Brian:

And here’s Keith:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27367575#27367575

(sorry the link, Keith. WordPress doesn’t like msnbc’s embedded video)

[from Huffington Post]

This epic post at talkingpointsmemo.com details how the Mccain camp was pushing this obviously false Ashley Todd attack, in an effort to incite race-based fear in Pennsylvania.  

According to the post, Mccain communications director Peter Feldman was providing a very inflated and incendiary version of Ashley’s story, citing facts far beyond  what police had been able to concern.

It is clear that the campaign pounced on this opportunity to stoke racial fears in hopes of stealing this election.  Besides pushing this false story prematurely, they released an incendiary press release, and managed to have both candidates call Ashley Todd and her family.  That sort of stuff does not happen without the blessing of campaign managers.

So much for the “honorable” campaign John McCain promised to run.

Ashleyislying is the fastest growing blog on WordPress. It won’t be updated much longer, of course, but I’m happy to have provided a reference for people trying to get a minute-by-minute account of how this story unfolded.

12,000+ views in the critical 24 hours during which people were busy trying to tell fact from fiction.

Now – back to searching for information about the McCain campaign’s involvement.

Read his blog post here

When there was still some doubt (in the minds of some), Moody predicted that McCain’s campaign would be irretreivably tied to race-baiting if this turned out to be a hoax.  

Well, it’s a hoax.

Update: Link to full confession story

Thanks to all the tipsters who sent me information, including “c” for the news that she confessed.

The job isn’t done yet.   I want to see how early the Mccain campaign was involved in this mess.  I’m hearing reports that Todd called the Mccain campaign BEFORE calling the police.  Still looking for a source on that – any help?

In about 16 hours – this blog got well over 10,000 views and dozens of comments from fellow thinkers around the web.  Together, the blogosphere did what the mainstream media refuses to do, and debunked this story before it got too far.  

Thanks again – I’ll continue posting for a little while as this fizzles out.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the first paper to break the story.  Ashley now claims the attacker, after chasing her down and beating her, also groped her under her blouse.  Ashley now claims she then lost consciousness, and only discovered the backwards ‘B’ when she got to her friend’s house later.

After initially jumping at this too-good-to-be-true storyline, and after both McCain and Palin personally called Ashley Todd, and after they issued a statement expressing how terribly shaken up they were…

The McCain campaign is now refraining from comment on this story.

Perhaps they smell the lies in the water.

It is already clear, from Ashley’s twitter feed leading up to the “attack”, that this whole charade was pre-meditated. 

Given the speed with which this was politicized by the Mccain campaign, it’s now worth noting that the organization Ashley Todd works for, the College Republican National Committee, is a former home to a veritable who’s-who of high-powered right-wing political operatives.

These include Karl Rove, Rick Santorum, Lee Atwater, and several current Mccain campaign advisors.

[thanks to an anonymous tipster]

Ashley Todd was administered a polygraph test late Thursday or early Friday, according to a story by Fox News, of all places.  Ashley is now…

• No longer sure she was even mugged.  She’s only certain that $60 is missing.
• Now claiming she was unconscious during much of the attack.
• Less definitive about the motives behind the attack.