Barack Obama tries to say, in effect: those Republicans are going to be racists, just you wait:
"“Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, `he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name,’ you know, `he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”‘
The McCain campaign is rightly calling this what it is--playing the race card.
And look at the pathetic spin the Obama campaign tries to place on this:
“What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn’t get here after spending decades in Washington,” Gibbs said. “There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.”
Right--Obama refers to his "look" compared to other presidents on dollar bills as a way of referring to his experience! Sure, right, that's real believable...
Obama wants to play the victim, and make it so that people believe that if you DON'T vote for Obama, one is a racist.
UPDATE: Don't forget, too, that Obama's angry response above is probably a response to John McCain's new ad out yesterday--the one featuring quick cameos of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and portraying Obama as a celeb elitist. Many are criticizing McCain for this, claiming he's gone too negative. But in this case I think I'd defend McCain, and go along with Rich Lowry on NRO, who writes:
"McCain's not going to win without defining Obama in a negative way. He's just not. There are other ways to do it, but pumping Obama up as a celebrity—and pointing out how arrogant, gassy, and remote he is—is a pretty good frame that has the added advantage of being true."
