heh, lovely. It starts. McCain campaign chief: Obama played the Race Card

[ErinBerin84]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/McCain_campaign_chief_Obama_playing_race_card.html

McCain campaign chief: Obama "played the race card"

John McCain's campaign manager is accusing Barack Obama of unfairly using the issue of race, a significant accusation in a campaign featuring the first African-American major party nominee.

"Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck," said Rick Davis, in a statement issued from the McCain campaign. "It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."

Yesterday in Missouri, Obama predicted McCain and the GOP would use racially-tinged attacks against him.

"What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said. "You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

An Obama spokesman denied that the line about "dollar bills" was related to the Democrat's race.

McCain's campaign has stepped up their attacks Obama since his overseas trip and began airing an ad yesterday comparing the Illinois senator to a vacuous pop star. But for months, both McCain and his campaign have been careful to avoid anything that approaches an assault based on race. McCain has rebuked outside parties, including the North Carolina GOP and an Ohio talk show host, whose attacks cited Obama's controversial pastor and his middle name.

Now with the contest entering a new, more negative phase -- one largely brought on by McCain -- the Republican campaign is clearly seeking to preemptively rebut any attempt by Obama to attribute race to their attacks. Davis, in effect, is laying down a marker.

But by flatly accusing Obama of having "played the race card," Davis ensures that the issue, already looming over the historic campaign, will now take a front-and-center position in a contest that is increasingly being fought more over character than issues.

[Alter Ego]

1. If Obama can stick to the issues at hand, McCain's character attacks

will look desperate and silly.

[FrenchieCat]

2. So McCain can play the radical, risky, elitist, Britney/Paris cards,

but Obama can't say a thing?

Geeze.

McCain is acting like a whining 5th grader.

[jwirr]

5. It's not that he cannot say a thing. In the Primaries he took the high

ground and stuck to the issues refusing to play dirty. I think he won a lot of voters just by running a good clean campaign that treated people as if they had a brain.

[fascisthunter]

3. Let McCain Dig a Deeper Hole... Stay on Message Obama

let McCain play the right wing bigot card

[TwilightGardener]

4. Actually, it's OBAMA who "laid down the marker". They are on notice.

[tekisui]

6. It's gonna be a long 95 days.

[reflection]

7. Stay on message. Define McCain as a man running a scared campaign.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Virginia Dare]

8. Obama called us out WAAAAHHH!!!!

he's not playing NIIIICE, he's presumptuous and arrogant WAAAAH!!! And he's more popular too, WAAAAHH!!...:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[tishaLA]

9. They got asshole Jake Tapper to throw the pitch

and now they think they can hit it out of the park. What a gross fucking campaign.