Michael Smerconish: Unseemly political reflections

By Michael Smerconish - Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News

Daily News Opinion Columnist

IT TOOK me only a few seconds of my hairy-eyeball test to conclude that McCain-Palin volunteer Ashley Todd, who said she had been assaulted and branded with a politically tinged scarlet letter, was full of it. It was the same internal alarm that sounded when I first heard of the alleged Duke-

lacrosse rape. No way, I thought.

Todd claimed a 6-foot-4 black man approached her at an ATM, held a knife to her throat and demanded $60. When he noticed a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on her car, she said, he started beating her.

"He continued to kick and punch her repeatedly and said he would teach her a lesson for supporting John McCain," Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper said. That lesson was the "B" carved into her right cheek.

John McCain and Sarah Palin must have bought it. They called her and her family to express concern. This triggered the release of a statement by the Obama campaign: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice." Hundreds of journalists filed stories detailing the report.

The entire thing was preposterous. Were we really supposed to believe that some kook wanted people to see what happens to McCain supporters?

Ridiculous. The "B" was backwards. It only looked like a "B" when viewed in reverse.

You know how an approaching ambulance looks in your rearview mirror? The word "ambulance" sprawled across the front looks fine. But if you viewed it straight on, and not through your mirror, the letters would be backwards. Same here.

My conclusion? She carved the "B" into her own face while standing at a mirror.

Am I the only one who remembers Morton Downey Jr.? Back in 1989, Downey claimed some skinheads assaulted him and drew a swastika on his face.

His lie unraveled when it became obvious the swastika was painted on backwards. So why didn't alarm bells ring in the McCain camp?

I say it's because they have fostered an atmosphere in which they and their supporters would easily accept this fiction as truth.

And why not? Their opponent is a Muslim and a terrorist (in fact, a Muslim terrorist) who was born in Indonesia, which explains why he doesn't have a proper birth certificate. Of course, we all know his middle name is Hussein. His sole ambition in seeking the presidency is to redistribute income. Not only that, but he is being supported by individuals now in the process of stealing the election.

I have proof. It fills my e-mail inbox every day.

For several days now, I've been getting e-mails with the subject line "RNC Communications."

Very official-looking. When I open the e-mails, they're labeled "Alert: Vote Fraud." They look like the sort of thing that recipients probably resend to their friends and perpetrate the belief that shenanigans are under way. They seek to reduce the election to one word: ACORN.

Meanwhile, state GOP officials in Pennsylvania had to repudiate another e-mail and fire the staffer, hired to assist in outreach to Jewish voters, responsible for drafting it. This one said Obama had taught members of ACORN "to commit voter registration fraud."

The e-mail pointed out Obama's association with Bill Ayers - "who thought the terrorists didn't do enough on 9/11" - and equated the election with the "tragic mistake" of those who ignored the warnings in the 1930s and 1940s. In other words, we're now blaming Obama for the Holocaust.

Put it all together. Of course, anyone supporting a Muslim named Hussein sent here as a Manchurian candidate to undermine our society would think nothing of resorting to violence, including scrawling a "B" into a political opponent's face.

The woman behind all of this isn't the only one who needs to look in the mirror.