by Evie Stone

At a press availability in York, PA, today, Barack Obama responded to the harsh rhetoric cast his way at the Republican Convention this week. The Democratic presidential nominee told reporters that "the American people deserve better than to get the same old vitriol and slash and burn politics that we have been seeing over the last couple of days."

When pressed on the tough words from the RNC podium, Obama offered this dismissal of GOP tactics:

This is what they do. They do not have an agenda to run on. They have not offered a single concrete idea so far in two nights about how they would make the lives of middle-class Americans better. They spent the entire two nights attacking me or extolling John McCain's biography, which is fine. They can use their convention time anyway they want, but you cannot expect that I would be surprised about attacks from Republicans. And by the way, I have been called worse on the basketball court. It's not that big of a deal.

Obama added that he thinks the race will ultimately be about him and McCain "and who is in a better position to lead the country."

But despite those dismissals, the Obama campaign is making the most of their week in the RNC cross-hairs. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sent out a fundraising appeal this morning to raise money for response advertising to "show the McCain campaign that there is a cost to this kind of negative politics." And supporters have responded enthusiastically; the campaign has reportedly raised more than $8 million since last night, and is on track to generate $10 million before McCain speaks tonight.

Because John McCain took public financing, his campaign fundraising season ended on August 31st...but as of a few hours ago the Republican National Committee told Politico they had raised $1 million on the strength of Palin's performance.