Obama Reverts to His Favorite Pastime: "Playing the Race Card"

Barack Obama, once again, is falsely accusing the McCain campaign of using scare tactics and playing the race card against him.

From the Political Punch:

"I know that I’m not your typical presidential candidate," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told executives and employees of the Schott glass company Friday afternoon, "and I just want to be honest with you. I know that."

"And I know that the temptation is to say, 'You know what? …The guy hasn’t been there that long in Washington.,' You know, 'he’s got funny name,' You know, 'we’re not sure about him,'" Obama continued. "And that’s what the Republicans, when they say, 'This isn’t about issues, it’s about personalities,' what they’re really saying is, 'We’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic.'

Obama was referring to a comment by Rick Davis, the campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who told The Washington Post this week that "this election is not about issues, this election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Now, contrary to Obama's false allegation, Rick Davis never mentioned "personalities" in his interview with the Washington Post. This is what Mr. Davis said [see the video at the Washington Post]:

"This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates, their values, their character, their opinions, their principles, and all that goes into this great rinse cycle that we talked about that then comes out with a decision on a President. Obviously, issues have a big bearing on that and what positions you've taken and over what period of time you've taken those issues...

If Obama is offended by Mr. Davis' remarks, if he's aggrieved when the McCain campaign talks about "values", "character" and "principles", then how come he agreed to debate Senator McCain at the Saddleback Church forum about these same issues, and why wasn't he offended when the debate's moderator Rev. Rick Warren uttered the following remarks:

“The primaries proved that Americans care deeply about the faith, "values", "character" and leadership convictions of candidates as much as they do about the issues. While I know both men as friends and they recognize I will be frank, but fair, they also know I will be raising questions in these four areas beyond what political reporters typically ask..."

Is Rev. Warren a part of this evil cabal who are using scare tactics against Barack Obama?

And quite frankly, If anyone is guilty of deriding a particular candidate's "personality", it's the Democrats and Barack Obama's own campaign advisers:

John McCain’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate are zeroing in on his oft-discussed temper, questioning whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is too volatile to be commander in chief. In separate interviews with Politico on Tuesday, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said they have seen McCain “explode.”

“He has a huge anger problem,” Boxer said. “And he never hid that. ... He has exploded at me a couple times.” Boxer said... that McCain’s temperament makes him unfit for the White House. “It’s all well and good to apologize,” Boxer added, “but if you are in charge of that black box, I worry about that.”

Pretty good scare tactic, huh?

Durbin noted McCain’s temper is “well documented,” saying.... “I was in a confrontation with him … and he was quick to explode, It simmered for a long time".

And then there's this:

In an apparent effort to regain the offensive, the Obama campaign launched a broad attack on McCain [yesterday], portraying him as reckless on foreign policy, a hot-head who’s too willing to use force..

On a conference call with reporters - in which Obama's foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, took part - Richard Clarke, who was a top counter-terrorism official in the last three administrations, slammed McCain, calling him “quick-draw McCain,” “reckless,” “trigger-happy” and “discredited.”

As the Carpet Bag Reporter comments:

It’s an encouraging sign, in a general sense, to see Obama’s team take on McCain on character....

And of course, as the television network commentators noted at the time, Obama's reference to "temperament and judgment" during his acceptance speech at Invesco field, was certainly not an inadvertent slip-of-the- tongue.

"Temperament" is a code word the Obama campaign has used over and over again to attack Senator McCain and discredit him as a hot headed individual, incapable of leading this country.

Indeed, it is not the Republicans who are deriding Obama's "personality", but the Democrat's and Obama's minions who are attacking Senator McCain's personality.

The Republicans are simply juxtaposing the Character of Senator McCain - a Vietnam War POW who refused to be released early from captivity until those captured ahead of him were freed - to the character of Barack Obama - a man who advocated retreating from Iraq and abandoning the country to the enemy, a man who's sole foreign policy initiative is to meet with tyrants and dictators.

That's not an attack on Obama's personality. It's a question of character. Wasn't that the theme of the Saddlback debate of which Obama agreed to take part in? As the moderator, Rick Warren aptly declared: "The primaries proved that Americans care deeply about... "values", "character" and leadership convictions of candidates as much as they do about the issues."

Wow! Rick Davis took the words right out of Rick Warren's mouth!