David Axelrod concedes on Good Morning Today that Obama was referring to race.

"He's not from central casting when it comes to candidates for president of the United States. He's new to Washington. Yes, he's African American."

ref: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/08/obama-race-mcca.html

And Obama says today that McCain is not racist only cynical.

“In no way do I think that John McCain's campaign was being racist; I think they're cynical, and I think they want to distract people from talking about the real issues."

ref: http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/Obama_McCain_cynical_not_racist.html

You say, "So, who gets the responsibility for this turn of phrase. Isn't it the height of arrogance to accuse Obama of something that the McBush had already put up on the net. What about the Obama "baby momma" comment?"

Yes, what about the "baby momma" comment?

On June 11, 2008, Fox News ran the header "Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mama!" during a segment with anchor Megyn Kelly and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin.

ref: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/11/fox_obama/

On November 2, 2004 when Barack Obama won the election to become the US Senator for Illinois, Michelle Obama introduced him in this way:

"My baby's daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!"

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/02/se.06.html

However, I'm really unclear as to when the McCain campaign referred to her as "Obama's Baby Mama."

So who gets responsibility for this "turn of phrase"?

It's all spin and histrionics with you, isn't it.

It's disingenuous for Obama to make statements that he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills," but then says it doesn't refer to race. What pray tell is Obama referring to?

I have heard a ridiculous hypothesis on an AP article that was then echoed on CBC.ca that Obama could have meant he isn't as old as the presidents on American currency. Obama is 46 and will be 47 if he is sworn into office, which would make him the same age as Ulysses Grant($50) when he was sworn in. Grover Cleveland($1000) was 48 when he was sworn in. If you take the 9 presidents on $, their average age is 55.2, which makes Obama much closer in age to them than McCain who would be 72 if sworn into office. In fact, McCain is 10 years older than the oldest $ president, Andrew Jackson($20) who was 62. Obama being 46 turning 47 is not quite as precocious as he would like his Facebook followers to believe.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibb states:

"What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn't get here after spending decades in Washington. 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."

What truth is there in this statement? Let's get rid of the obvious first. George Washington($1) did not spend decades in Washington before he was president, bec. Washington D.C., of course, didn't exist before he was president. Of course, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson($2), James Madison($5000) are considered 3 of America's Founding Fathers. I'm not sure if any president since them has the history of creating the United States of America and writing the Constitution. Though, Barack Obama did teach classes in Constitutional law, just like Woodrow Wilson.

William McKinley, Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson had no experience as Washington politicians before being sworn into office. They did not get there after spending decades in Washington.

Abraham Lincoln of course served in the Illinois House of Representatives. Hmmm... a politician from Illinois, sound familiar?

The presidents on the dollar bills come from varied backgrounds, some were military generals, some had no formal education, some were lawyers(like Obama), some had been governors, some wrote the Constitution, some taught Constitutional law(like Obama), and some had served in their state legislatures(like Obama). To say that these presidents had the same history and background is clearly not true. And to say that Obama in his background and history has nothing in common with these men, is clearly not true either.

So yeah, unless Obama meant that he doesn't "look" like these presidents because he doesn't ride a horse, have a beard, wear a wig, have wooden teeth, or wear a pipe-stove hat, then yeah he did mean race.