The Life & Times Of Race-Baiter Floyd Brown: Creator Of The NC Obama Ad

[DeSwiss]

Will McCain denounce Floyd Brown?
It's time for the GOP to finally repudiate the creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad, who is back smearing Obama.

Salon
By Joe Conason
April 25, 2008


(Screenshot of Obama ad scheduled to air in North Carolina)

There is nothing remarkable in the sudden reappearance of right-wing con man Floyd Brown, whose latest venture is an inflammatory television ad now airing in North Carolina that attempts to blame Barack Obama for gang murders in Chicago (and international terrorism, too). Nobody familiar with Brown would expect him to resist smearing an African-American presidential contender. He has given conservatism a rank smell for two decades -- and if there is a racist odor to the coming general election campaign, it is likely to emanate from his vicinity. True to form, according to Time magazine's Michael Scherer, Brown has promised to follow his hit on Obama with an ad designed to inflame animosity toward illegal immigrants.

What is remarkable about Brown is that no matter how much America changes, he does not. He not only survives but thrives, cycle after cycle, playing the same ugly game that first won him notoriety in 1988, back when he scripted and televised the flagrantly inflammatory Willie Horton ad. He lurks on the fringe of presidential politics because the Republicans tolerate and sometimes secretly encourage him, so long as they can claim that they have no connection with his schemes. Those denials have always been implausible -- and as he ramps up for a new season of divisive attacks, the question is whether the mainstream media will give Brown the kind of scrutiny he deserves.

Most news articles about Brown, such as those reporting on his new ad against Obama in North Carolina, have dutifully recalled his responsibility for the Horton ad, which featured the frightening mug shot of a stereotypical 1980s urban marauder (complete with sullen expression and scruffy, uncombed Afro hairstyle). Although the ad was primitive in message and production values, and ran briefly only on a few cable channels, it effectively framed Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis as "soft on crime." The mug shot surfaced again and again in free media on television and in print, until its blatant provocation reached every susceptible voter.

Meanwhile, Brown and his cronies became rich as well as infamous, operating as an independent political committee called "Americans for Bush" and hauling in millions of dollars from direct-mail and telemarketing appeals. Between 1986 and 1988, the committee's parent organization, known as the National Security Political Action Committee, raised over $9 million, far more than it spent on the cheapo Horton ad or any of its other activities. And while the official campaign committee of President George H.W. Bush eventually complained to the Federal Election Commission about Americans for Bush and denounced both Brown and the Horton ad, its attitude was in truth much more equivocal.

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- To say that Repukes are morally bankrupt, would be to bestow them with a compliment. When I'm not even sure anymore if they're in the human race....
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DeSwiss


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