McCain's Campaign is Cynical But Not Racist, Says Obama

The row between the two US presidential candidates over the use of race as a campaign weapon rumbled through the weekend, with Barack Obama accusing his Republican rival of a cynical recourse to negative attacks to distract voters from the real issues.

Obama sought to remove the racial element of the dispute, saying that "in no way do I think John McCain's campaign was racist". But he went on to say, in words that are likely to sustain the newly bitter tone of the presidential campaign, "I think they are cynical. Their team is good at creating distractions and engaging in negative attacks."

The accusations and counter-accusations flying between the two politicians over the highly charged subject of race has dominated the election campaign for the past five days. The tetchy dispute began on Wednesday when Obama charged the McCain campaign with resorting to scare tactics.

"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," he said in a speech in Union, Missouri.

McCain aides, detecting what they perceived to be a rare moment of vulnerability on the part of the Democratic senator for Illinois, went in for the kill.

Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, said Obama had "played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck".

For both candidates, the issue of race is extremely delicate, and has largely been kept out of the debate until now. Obama has been keen to avoid overt references to race. Instead, he has sought to present himself as having transcended the racial divide, both in his own life as the child of a white mother from Kansas and black Kenyan father and in terms of his politics.

On the other hand, his campaign has been determined not to repeat the mistake of John Kerry in 2004 in failing to respond robustly enough to underhand attacks from his Republican opponents.

The new formula, vented over the weekend, of presenting McCain as cynical but not racist seeks to satisfy those conflicting imperatives.

"They are good at negative campaigns," Obama said of his rival on Saturday. "They are not so good at governing."

On McCain's side, any direct attack on Obama on the grounds of race would carry enormous risks of a backlash. The senator for Arizona has vowed to wage a clean and positive campaign, cognisant that overt references to ethnic background are widely considered out of bounds.

But he also knows that the polls suggest an enduring suspicion of Obama among many white, working-class voters, and the McCain campaign has been increasingly playing to those anxieties by portraying the Democratic candidate as out of touch with ordinary voters.

In a flurry of television and internet adverts, the McCain camp has sounded a more belligerent note credited to its new senior adviser, Steve Schmidt.

The ads include one that sought to liken Obama to the frequently ridiculed celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and another that implies he sees himself in biblical terms that concludes with a clip from the film The Ten Commandments, in which Charlton Heston as Moses parts the Red Sea.

Bill Clinton has added to the emphasis on race as the former president completed a tour of Africa as part of his work for his charitable foundation. He told the Washington Post that race would be a factor in November, though not a decisive one.

Clinton said Democrats should not see a vote for Obama as an end to their commitment. "What we Democrats can't afford to do, even as we support Senator Obama, is try to build one America on the cheap."

"People should not tell themselves, 'I voted across the racial divide; I have no obligations to do something in my community or around the world'."