Edwards is great with little girls. So isn't it quite strange

[PeaceProgProsp]

that a little girl gets her sign torn up at an Edwards rally?

Edwards is great with his own little kids, and he always asks little girls their names. It's so adorable.

So, isn't it strange that a little girl gets her sign torn up and cries at an Edwards rally?

Isn't that a little too much of a coincidence?

[Maddy McCall]

1. I'm thinking that it appears staged, too.

[JohnKleeb]

2. He's great with little girls for an obvious reason

Thats Emma Claire I think, his daughter.

[kestrel91316]

3. Sounds awfully convenient!

[yardwork]

4. You are absolutely right

There's an interesting thread here where some intrepid DUers located the father's bio. He's a four-time school board candidate (defeated four times and counting) who has dragged his ten children all over the country attending Bush rallies this summer.

[kestrel91316]

8. Betcha this wingnut is a homeschooling advocate.......................

who wants to get onto the school board to SABOTAGE the school system. They truly want all government (except the military and the womb/genitalia police) dead and buried.

[demwing]

16. There Is An Anti-Homeschooling Gene In Some Dems

And I am so fucking sick of it. Grow out of it.

It was mindless crap like this, directed at some of my earliest independent ideas by my Stepford Republican family members, that cemented my association with the Democratic Party. Honestly, I'm a Dem FIRST because the Republicans don't tolerate dissent, and only second because I find that the Dems represent all my views-they don't. The party doesn't do it for me every time, but it does it when and where it counts. I've always felt free to be an independent Dem, but issues like homeschooling threaten that.

If you don't want to homeschool, then don't. I don't care. But I homeschool, I'm proud of it, and I won't stop.

I'm not out to sabotage anything, destroy government, or join the "womb/genitalia police" (and BTW -wtf does that have to do with homeschooling? NOTHING!) And its time the guilty Dems stopped acting like freeptards, stop making blanket and biased statements against groups with which they disagree, and remember that the Democratic Party IS the big tent.

If Dems can't repect diversity, then diversity needs a new home.

[girl gone mad]

19. Don't take it personally.

I'm all for homeschooling.

I don't want to put words into anybody's mouth, but I think the poster probably meant that this guy is into homeschooling because he doesn't want his kid exposed to evolution or black history, not because he wants his child to get the best education possible.

[demwing]

22. Thanks,. I try not to but over time it gets hard

This isn't the first time I've heard such statements.

To illustrate why I get irate, imagine the poster replacing "homeschool advocate" with and other type of advocacy, such as "civil rights advocate." "Same sex Marriage advocate." "Women's choice advocate."

The post suddenly become incredibly insensitive and rudely ignorant, doesn't it?

I'll survive. :)

[PeaceProgProsp]

14. So he's probably gotten to know people on the Bush advance team

Probably on a first name basis with some of them.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. Someone linked to articles that mention the girl's father

he's at Bush rallies a lot, has 10 kids, and I bet they PAID him to disrupt an Edwards appearance.

[IndianaGreen]

9. The point is that some idiot fell for it by ripping off the sign

and that makes all Kerry supporters look like goons that pick on little girls. If that is the image you want the campaign to project, you won't win the election.

Luckily the photo will disappear in the memory hole as the media continues to cover hurricane Ivan and the latest CBS News fiasco.

[PeaceProgProsp]

11. NOBODY sane would rip up a little girl's sign. It's so staged.

I'm serious.

I'm not spinning this.

Just think about this.

WHO would tear up a little girl's sign?

NOBODY!

[IndianaGreen]

12. I would like to know what the people on that picture had to say

the laughter from the man in the photo, together with AP's caption, casts a negative light on Kerry/Edwards supporters.

[PeaceProgProsp]

13. Set up.

[IndianaGreen]

20. People yelling "set up" were also saying the CBS documents were true

I don't believe in Talking Points from either campaign. As Joe friday would say, "just the facts!"

[PeaceProgProsp]

21. Just the logic.

Edwards is great with kids. He's great with little girls.

How do you deal with this?

Hmm. I wonder.

And again: who would tear the sign out of little girl's hands?

Someone who wants to start a fight? It's not like anyone would have defended him? It just makes no sense except as a staged photo op for republicans so they can chip away at something that Edwards has turned into a powerful image.

[PeaceProgProsp]

25. Repeating for emphasis: logic.

[enigmatic]

26. Well, now that the "facts" are in...

And the guys is proven to be a serial disrupter to Dem events who has his own son help stage the disruptions, have your views changed?

[Cha]

29. It was staged, IndianaGreen!

This story has been debunked! IT was not even a Dem who did it...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804X.shtml

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Hardly...

If you know what I mean. Everything is possible in this election. Everything.

This has become the "Do What Thou Wilt is The Whole of The Law" nation.

[PeaceProgProsp]

10. This campaign has featured one thing, over and over again:

"do something staged and just make it just plausible enough for the press to spin into an anti-Kerry story, and the media will take it the rest of the way."

[DemDogs]

27. Agree absolutely

There is nothing too low. Talk civilly; think skeptically.

[A_Possum]

7. Maybe the dad spanked her

and then when she started crying, he tore up her sign to make it look like someone else did it.

Is there any story with this photo? Any interviews?

[Algorem]

15. Rove concentrates on attacking a candidates strengths.Who knows?

[LSdemocrat]

17. Is it a good thing I have no idea what this thread is referring to?

[ant]

18. give me a break

Is it really so impossible to believe there might be a person out there who's a Democrat AND an asshole? Since when are all Democrats saints? Are you telling me no Democrat has ever been mean or lied or done any of the thousands of petty, stupid things that people of all ages, races, sexes, and political affiliations are capable of doing?

Believe it or not, there are bad Democrats out there, just as there are - gasp! - good Republicans.

All Bush supporters really are ignorant fucks, though, so perhaps we should just agree on that and move on. :)

[PeaceProgProsp]

23. But who would do this? Nobody except someone who knew

that the father wasn't going to react, and someone who was doing it for the camera.

Have you EVER EVER EVER seen a stranger walk up to a child sitting on her father's shoulders and do something to make her cry?

And something like this? Granted he was the lone Bush supporter in a crowd of Dems, but it's not like if the father tangled with him anyone would have come to the guy's defense.

[ant]

24. is it so hard to imagine

That there are people at a Kerry rally, and the anti-Kerry crew shows up, and words are exchanged, and some idiot just mindlessly grabs a sign a rips it, not even realizing that someone's taking a picture? Some guy just probably got all worked up and didn't think of the consequences before acting. It's really not a big deal, and it happens all the time.

In the end, this is just a non-story. If a right-winger tries to hurl it at you as a symbol of how evil democrats are, point out the video of the young republican kicking the restrained protester at the RNC. There, we're even. Moving on...

Edited to add: I just read the Salon story about how this guy is a serial victim of Dem assaults, so it does seem likely that he's probably lying or setting people up. I was wrong. (Hey, it happens. :))

[WolverineDG]

28. look at the photos & the body language

of the people involved. for starters, if you were at a rally & one of your "fellow supporters" ripped a pro-bush poster from a little girl's hand, don't you think kerry supporters would be upset & intervene? i mean, come on, have we come to the stage where it's ok to pick on little girls if they're holding the wrong sign? (i thought only republicans did that....)

and what kind of father would let that happen to his kid & stand there & pout for the camera, instead of placing the kid on the ground & punching the asshole who made his kid cry?

dg

[PeaceProgProsp]

31. Parlock might have lied to the police regarding the gun shot

And that could be a crime.

If he's not telling the truth, he should be careful. His addiction is getting him closer and closer to jail time.

[Cha]

30. How about if you know the WHOLE STORY?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804X.shtml