The McCain supporter who claimed to be beaten by an Obama supporter, which was big news on the cablers last night, has admitted the story was a hoax (and is back to a big story today).

This afternoon a tipster pointed us to the Fox Forum blog on Foxnews.com, where EVP of news editorial John Moody wrote a blog post last night about the incident (apparently Moody's been blogging since May — we'll have to check it out more).

Moody writes, "If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee."

But, "If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting," he concludes.

Moody tells TVNewser today: "Certainly this was a difficult situation for the McCain campaign, but thank goodness Fox's actual reporting of the incident was more accurate than my blog."

> Update: FishbowlLA has more on the story.