It was a beautiful sight to behold. The obviously pro-Obama Campbell Brown snarling throughout an interview at the heels of former Hillary Clinton fundraiser and now McCain supporter, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, for "daring" to switch sides. After several minutes of accusing de Rothschild of everything from being an elitist to acting as a traitor to the Democrats, Campbell Brown set herself up for the grand slam dunk by Ms Rothschild using the very words of the Lightworker to turn the tables on the CNN interviewer. First we see in the transcript how Campbell Brown begins with an elitism charge against de Rothschild (emphasis mine):
CAMPBELL BROWN: Now to the political story that everybody has been buzzing about today, the prominent Hillary Clinton fundraiser and big- time Democrat who came out for John McCain. And it's not just that she is switching sides, it's what she says about Barack Obama. She calls him elitist. That word a bit surprising for someone who is married to a billionaire. So let's ask her about it.
Joining me live now, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Lady de Rothschild, is it OK if I call you Lynn?
LYNN FORESTER DE ROTHSCHILD: Please call me Lynn, Campbell.
BROWN: I absolutely will. So, you have to understand how ridiculous this seems to a lot of people. You're a Rothschild. You're married to a billionaire. You were a millionaire before you married him.
You're a jetsetter. You live between New York and London. And yet, you're calling Barack Obama an elitist. Are you not a member of the elite?
DE ROTHSCHILD: Let me tell you what informs my support of John McCain. I grew up in a middle class town in New Jersey. My father worked two jobs to put four children through college, law school, and medical school. We were taught that we were blessed by God to live in the greatest country in the world. And if we worked hard we could have anything.
And the truth is, I have it. I don't have to be doing what I'm doing supporting John McCain, but I am doing it because I really believe it's John McCain and Sarah Palin who will keep this country the way that I was taught this country.
BROWN: OK. But the point --
DE ROTHSCHILD: They are the great Americans.
BROWN: But I think --
DE ROTHSCHILD: So, please, you know, the class war that Barack Obama would like to declare in this country to divide people is so wrong.
BROWN: OK, we'll stop there.
DE ROTHSCHILD: I have basic --
BROWN: Just stop there for a second. Let me ask you a question because you didn't answer my question. I assume, I guess that you came up through a middle class background. But I was accurate in describing your lifestyle, is it not?
(CROSSTALK)
DE ROTHSCHILD: Let me -- right, you did. You described my lifestyle.
BROWN: OK. But let me ask you specifically to tell me, then, what has Barack Obama said that has caused you to come to this conclusion that he is so elitist and out of touch?
DE ROTHSCHILD: OK. I wrote this piece in the "Wall Street Journal" last week if you want to look at it. What I said is that the Democratic Party has a very bad history with the likes of Adlai Stevenson and people who think they are grander than the rest of us.
Barack Obama --
BROWN: So what makes you think -- what's he said that makes you think this guy thinks he's grander than the rest of us? Specifically, be specific.
DE ROTHSCHILD: You know what? OK, a lot of it is you know it when you see it. This is a person who went to Berlin to speak to 200,000 people. This is a person who made speeches about how he is the one that the world has been waiting for. He came into this campaign talking about audacity. Where I come from, audacity is not a good thing. It's modesty and simplicity and being in politics to help people...
BROWN: OK.
DE ROTHSCHILD: ... not to advance yourself.
BROWN: But -- but --
DE ROTHSCHILD: That's why I admire John McCain. What I said in my piece --
Then Campbell Brown suggests that de Rothschild is somehow a traitor to the liberal cause:
BROWN: But let me ask you -- let me ask you about the issues here, because if you look at the major issues in this election, the war in Iraq and the economy, what everybody in all the polls says are the most important issues in this race. Hillary Clinton, the candidate you supported and you worked hard for, she could not be any more different than John McCain on these issues, but her positions are nearly identical to Barack Obama.
So it sounds like the issues aren't important to you, aren't what you're voting for. You're voting on personality, right?
DE ROTHSCHILD: Campbell, no, you are so wrong. First of all, Hillary Clinton is not in this race. So let's talk about John McCain and Barack Obama. No one --
BROWN: But the whole point of you being here, Lynn, let's be honest, is that you were one of Hillary Clinton's biggest supporters and biggest fundraisers so you making a switch is what's making news. Anybody else making a switch wouldn't make news. So I'm trying to get at what it is about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who are identical in all of these --
(CROSSTALK)
ROTHSCHILD: OK, let me tell you -- let me tell you why I am a Democrat. I am a Democrat because I believed -- I believed in the Democratic Party's sense of fairness, sense of fair rules, and most of all, that they would be there to protect the middle class, the family I came from, the town I came from, the people I care about, the people who make America great. I believe in this -- OK.
And now, ladies and gentleman, we come to the moment you've been waiting for...the grand slam dunking of Campbell Brown. First Campbell inadvertently sets herself up by calling de Rothschild "bitter":
BROWN: All right. Lynn, let me ask you finally. I mean, I understand you're still a Democrat. You're not going to leave the party.
DE ROTHSCHILD: Right.
BROWN: To some people invariably, it's going to sound like you're bitter. Hillary Clinton didn't get the nomination, this is your way of getting even.
And now the slam dunk:
DE ROTHSCHILD: You know what, Campbell? Barack Obama went and he called the people who have guns and cling to their religion bitter. The people out, you know, who are the rednecks or whoever are bitter. If bitter is the easiest way for you to rationalize that I truly with all my heart believe that John McCain will be a great president, then call me bitter. But it doesn't really advance the dialogue, Campbell, sorry.
Ouch! And now Campbell Brown limps away into the distance:
BROWN: All right.
Well, thank you for being here, Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Appreciate your time tonight.
To truly savor the slam dunk moment, you really need to see the video of this encounter. It was reminiscent of a wayward dog being brought to heel by Barbara Woodhouse.
