Campbell Brown Blasts McCain Campaign For "Race Baiting"

In her "No Bias, No Bull" segment Wednesday night, Campbell Brown pleaded with the McCain campaign to stop what she referred to as "race baiting."

"It is getting very, very ugly," Brown said. "Tonight, we are cutting through the bull on the issue of race and this campaign."

Brown blasted McCain surrogates for injecting race Obama's race into the campaign narrative by invoking his middle name or referring to him as a terrorist, and she called on McCain to deliver a "much stronger denunciation than a campaign-generated paper statement":

Look, everybody, we all know that we are in unchartered territory here. Never before has there been an African-American presidential nominee. So without question, race is going to be part of the conversation. Race baiting doesn't have to be. And yet, it is happening in this campaign.

Twice this week, surrogates for Senator McCain had made a point of calling Senator Obama "Barack Hussein Obama." The implication here is clear. It's foreign sounding. It's Muslim sounding. It's un-American sounding. It's dangerous sounding.

What it is, is race baiting. And that is what is dangerous. Inciting crowds, encouraging their angry outbursts. McCain supporters shouting "treason" and "terrorist" about Obama at these rallies — that is dangerous.

Earlier in the campaign, McCain denounced this stuff. He strongly denounced it. And today, it requires a stronger response, a much stronger denunciation than a campaign-generated paper statement.

Brown also cautioned Obama supporters not to accuse McCain of racism over his "that one" remark from Tuesday's Presidential debate, as she reported some have done. "Give me a break," she said. "I can hear my grandfather talking about one of his kids or grandkids as 'that one.' He used it a lot. Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe it wasn't a term of endearment
the way it was when my grandfather used it. Maybe McCain did mean to be disrespectful, but racist? I don't think so."

She ended the segment with a plea for candidates, supporters, and the media:

You know, we should be holding these candidates accountable for what they say during the campaign, and hope that in these final days, they do try to maintain a little dignity. But we have also got to check ourselves. We have a responsibility, too, to not get overheated. What we say matters, too.

Whoever wins this election, we are all going to have to rally around that person. Given what is happening to our economy, all that is going on in this country right now, none of us wants the next president to be a failure, whoever he may be, do we?

Over the weekend, Brown's shift towards the role of nonpartisan commentator was highlighted in a New York Times article. A collection of recent links in which she has kept politicians' feet to the fire appears below:

Campbell Brown Pleads: 'Don't Let This Devolve Into A Campaign That...We Are Sickened By'
Campbell Brown Holds Paulson, Bush Accountable For Crisis: "Seriously, What Were You Thinking?"
Campbell Brown Rips McCain Camp's "Sexist" Treatment Of Palin
McCain Spokesman Stumped Trying To Explain Why Palin Is Ready To Be Commander-In-Chief

Comments

[punditpolice]

McPalin keeps asking "who is Barack Obama?" We need to push this video and get it into the MSM- they will NOT stop the Ayers attacks- fire back with this!

Sarah Palin: Palling Around With Secessionists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eniG9l_7its

[HateLieCheatKillRepubWay]

I have been sending Campbell a few shout outs recently. The girl is just on this stuff BIG time. I don't care if she's a republican or not (husband is a republican strategist), as long as she does her job fairly, and right now she is.

[independent4obama2]

John McCain and Sarah Palin have won in one regard.
They have managed to evoke fear in every American.

I do hope they are ready for the consequences when their judgment day comes.

Despicable, ignorant, horrible people is what they are!

[rex2112]

I sent her program an email yesterday morning about this, I wrote the ACLU, I wrote everyone I could think of asking them to rant and rave about this until we're all blue in the face. This CANNOT BE ALLOWED! This is AMERICA. I guess McCain and Pailn forgot we have freedom of speech and the press in this country and we will not go quietly into the night! I think we should start forming human chains of protest at all their rallies. Or at least picket all rallies, stand up against this!

[bluedana1010]

While I agree that the comment "that one" may not have been racist, but merely disrespectful - as it would be to address anyone whose name you are perfectly familiar with as "that one," I think Cambell Brown's analogy is faulty. There is no comparison between what your white grandfather calls his white granddaughter and what one white person calls a black person (for example) who is not related to him. So, grandpa calling the grandkids "that one" off the front porch is not comparable to one U.S. Senator calling another U.S. Senator "that one" in a debate. Nor would my father-in-law calling my husband )his son) "boy" be the same as a white colleague calling my husband "boy." There is a difference. Her overall point is valid, I think, but her analogy is flawed.

[Jezreel]

I'm impressed. Whether one agrees with Campbell or not, one has to admit that given the way the McCain camp reacts to reporters who disagree with them, and the way they reacted to Campbell's questioning of Tucker Bounds, making this statement took courage. Courage seems to be in short supply theses days among the MSM.

[WendyKa]

I don't know about "that one" being a racist remark but the "Barack Husein Obama" IS. The inference is clear. Making him look middle eastern, muslim, maybe reminding them that there was a dictator named Sadam HUSSEIN. That is racist.

[BassMent]

I see the whole "Hussein" emphasis as being more a matter of fear-mongering than racism, the implication being that anyone with the name "Hussein" (as commonplace as "Robert" across much of the world) must necessarily be a radical Muslim terrorist.

However. "He's not one of us" is widely recognized code for, "he's colored." Ask anyone who's from the South. If you're having a conversation among white crackers about someone who's not known to all of them and someone makes the remark, "He's not one of us," it means he's black.

[scared4ALL]

For the record, if he was Muslim, there's not a thing wrong with that. It's a belief system and everyone has one. Muslims, like Christians are good people. And you have the evil radicals in both cases.

McCain is not "Able" Vote Obama
Our only choice

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/main

[LemonMeringue]

Dear Ms. Brown: Please report about this.

The Army infantry moved a brigade from Iraq to the U.S. soil, for domestic "crowd control."

The Posse Comitatus Act is no more.

Be afraid.

video 2 parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl6RXRHMXwE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYyvw0x4h88&feature=related

[quoveritas]

I'm not African American yet I see it as not only disrespectful but cold and objectifying language. Perhaps to reduce Obama to a thing as opposed to a fellow Senator, let alone another human being.

It's true that some grandparents are happy not to be responsible for their grandchildren, thus the spoiling of some while neglecting others. But to use this as justification when McCain refers to Obama.....­.I'm not sold on that idea. If we follow this logic than McCain must see Obama as a BOY.

[Dottie654]

Come on, Campbell. MCain jerking his head toward Obama and calling him "that one" was a nasty, derogatory and condescending slur indicating Obama was below him, so far below he wouldn't utter his name. McCain is a slime ball who is only USING Palin so he has someone to blame when he loses. The man is not fit to be president. Let him release his medical records so the Reps who DO vote for them know he isn't going to drop dead and leave Palin in charge of a world she knows nothing about.

That said, Campbell you have really blossomed recently. I have always enjoyed watching you, but you are just getting better and better.

[austinavery]

Isn't its "ethnicity-bating" really. Still, the point is to distract voters from his message and focus upon the implication of something he had no control over, the name he was given.

[hellinahandbasket415]

I agree - "that one" was more a demeaning, angry lash than a racist one. By no means was it ok...candi­dates should hold themselves to higher standards and act like gentlemen/­women...no­t like they're in a schoolyard fight.
LOVE the "That One 08" shirts on cafe press...bu­ying a hoodie as soon as I get paid!! :)

[geriak]

Campbell Brown is very hard to watch. She is not a non partial journalism. I won't watch her anymore. She is out of CONTROL!

[KimberlyKay]

Yes, the truth has a way of being "out of control" in an election where one of the candidates has become so desperate that he cannot see the moral lines anymore. It is too bad that the truth is so disturbing to you. Truth has a funny way of coming out even when one candidate is trying so hard to keep it hidden.

[Melissa]

She will say and do anything to hike her ratings against O'Reilly.

[dagdavid]

Campbell, you had me until you suggested I might have to rally behind Jon McCain and Sarah Palin. Not likely.

[Gingersp]

No, not likely for me either. And I think McCain's "that one" statement WAS racist -- or at least derogatory.

[Ohg]

The southern media went off on T. R. Roosevelt after Roosevelt had Booker T. WAshington in the White House for a sit down dinner ..........­..........­.....
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/10/09/teddy-roosevelt-racism-and-the-presidency/