McCain Camp Accuses Obama of Race-Baiting

The McCain campaign just came out with a statement condemning Barack Obama's comments yesterday in Missouri that he's being painted as "risky" because he's "got a funny name" and "doesn't look like the other Presidents on the currency."

Writes the McCain press office:

Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.

ABC's Jake Tapper picked it up immediately, posting this last night:

While I have no doubt there will be a bunch more racist, xenophobic, and other ignorant drek coming our way courtesy of the Internet and perhaps the occasional cable news network, it's important to determine where it's coming from. Is it from a specific campaign or party? A third-party group? A third-party group with direct ties to establishment figures? This all matters.

(snip)

What I have not seen is it come from McCain or his campaign in such a way to merit the language Obama used today. Pretty inflammatory.

Tapper asked the Obama camp for an explanation, and says they claimed "he was talking about his 'opponents' in general, writ large, the talk radio hosts and smear artists and such," and not about McCain himself.

The remarks themselves are pretty ambiguous, and do seem to imply race-based fearmongering from the McCain campaign. Read/watch them for yourself after the jump and let us know what you think.

-- Evie Stone

(Transcripts and links courtesy of McCain press release)

Springfield, Missouri: "So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. 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 those dollar bills, you know. He's risky. That's essentially the argument they're making."

Rolla, Missouri: "That's not the debate we're getting out of John McCain right now. He's spending an awful lot of time talking about me. You notice that? I haven't seen an ad yet where he talks about what he's gonna do. And the reason is because those folks know they don't have any good answers, they know they've had their turn over the last eight years and made a mess of things. They know that you're not real happy with them. And so the only way they figure they're going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they're saying is, 'Well, we know we're not very good but you can't risk electing Obama. You know, he's new, he doesn't look like the other presidents on the currency. He's got a funny name.' I mean, that's basically the argument -- he's too risky." (Barack Obama, Remarks, Rolla, MO, 7/30/08)

Union, Missouri: "John McCain and the Republicans, they don't have any new ideas, that's why they're spending all their time talking about me. I mean, you haven't heard a positive thing out of that campaign in a month. All they do is try to run me down, and you know, you know this in your own life, right? If somebody doesn't have anything nice to say about anybody, that means they've got some problems of their own. So they know they've got no new ideas, they know they're dredging up all the stale, old stuff they've been peddling for the last eight, ten years. But since they don't have any new ideas the only strategy they've got in this election is to try to scare you about me. They're going to try to say that I'm a risky guy, they're going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he's got a funny name, and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills,' and they're going to send out nasty e -mails. And the latest one they got me in an ad with Paris Hilton. You know, never met the woman. But, you know, what they're going to try to argue is that somehow I'm too risky. You know, basically what they're saying to you is we know we didn't do a real good job, but he's too risky."

12:30 PM ET | 07-31-2008 | permalink

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