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
