In fact, accusing Obama of playing the race card is the only smart move that McCain had made in a couple of weeks. Here he was looking like a querolous old fella with a whiny theme.

Instead of letting McCain hurt himself, Obama actually gave him something to push against by saying that he doesn't look like other presidents on the our money. Not at all smart.

(Read what jimmycarl said. He's on target.)

This simply gave McCain what many people will think is a legitimate grievance. It actually innoculates McCain should Obama start playing the race card in earnest and gives him coverage on the "arrogance" theme.

I have noticed that Obama cannot resist trying to use over and over the same stuff that worked in the past. He played the race card against the Clintons to useful effect because he was trying to appeal to white liberal "guilt." Now he has most liberals -- except for those of us who are so disgusted by his FISA vote that we have gone Green. The race card meme won't work with the voters he needs to win now. In fact, I can't think of anything that could injure him more. He needs to learn some new tricks.

You are both right and wrong. See my earlier comment to Joan and let me know what you think.

The race card is, IMO, a third-rail that neither campaign can resist playing dangerously close to.

Those ads did have a flavor of "Hey! Where are all the white women at?" via Blazing Saddles.

Honestly, those ads won't do much damage because anyone who believes that the tender, white woman must be protected from evil Obama isn't going to vote for him anyway. They're too busy planning the next Klan meeting. Seriously.

I still wish the phrases "pulling the race card" and "pulling the sexist card" would just go away. Stupid media. I hate these damned sound bites of lazy thinking.

Man, I'm tired tonight. Typos akimbo.

Obama's line was delivered and received as a light-hearted poke at the Republican hate machine. He delivered it with a grin and the audiences clearly got the joke.

The Republicans have proven that they are going to try and make scared of Obama. Obama knows exactly what happened to Ford in 2006. FOX has already run a scroll calling Obama's wife his "baby mama."

Obama always links McCain to Bush, for the obvious reason that Bush's approval rating would have to swim up to be in the toilet. But in this case, the linkage serves another purpose. By referring to "Bush and McCain", Obama's criticisms are not directed at just McCain's official campaign, but the entire Republican effort to paint Obama as a "scary black guy".

Remember, the Swift Boat crowd had no official ties to the Bush campaign. It being obvious what tactic the Republicans are going to use, Obama's comments were essentially a vaccination against the attacks that we all know are coming. Now, McCain will be forced to vocally distance himself from that type of attack which will prevent the attacks from getting the traction in the media that the Swift Boat attacks did.

After watching Andrea Mitchell dismember Rick Davis on live TV, I think that the Obama camp has played this week perfectly. I wish I could have seen Davis's face as he was forced to deal with a reporter who didn't just take the fact that Rick Davis was saying X, as proof that X, if not true, was at least a valid world view. What came to my mind was Rush Limbaugh's face when he left his ditto-bubble and appeared on Letterman's show and the crowd was ready to lynch him when he made a "Chelsea is ugly" joke (and I use the term loosely).

Obama's supporters are more energized than McCain's and the end result of the "Low Road" strategy is going to be turning off those in the middle who might have swung McCain's way. After 8 years of Bush, it is going to be really hard to scare people this election cycle, but the terror alerts should be starting soon, so we shall see.

How else could anybody interpret that statement except that he isn't white? That he doesn't wear a wig? It is disingenuous, at best, to accept that Obama wasn't saying flat out that McCain's campaign is trying to scare people into not voting for him because he is black. This was a more blatant race-baiting than Obama usually does (although his surrogates have been even more blatant). This is why I don't like Obama, and it frustrates me that people seem willing to bend over backwards to give him the benefit of the doubt, even when he overtly says something that indicates that he is seeking to get mileage out of being black. I liked Obama until his campaign started using race as a tool to batter his opponents. I guess some people justify it by saying "Well, some people won't vote for him because he's black, so it's fair for him to use race in his favor when he can". But it's not any more right for him to use race to win than it is for his opponents to use race against him. It's divisive and manipulative. It's Rovian. Democrats aren't supposed to be Rovian. We're supposed to be the good guys - because if we aren't, then who is left to be good?

It seems to be OK to call Sen. John McCain old, senile, angry, a bad pilot, a man who cheated on his first wife, another GWB, a flip flopper and a hypocrite.

But not a single word can be said questioning anything Sen. Barack Obama says or does without accusations of racism being hurled.

This campaign is all about the candidate. Reportedly his message to Democratic House members was that his election "is the moment the world is waiting for. I have become a symbol of America returning to its best traditions."

There are many people in key states like Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, where his lead is dropping, who could care less about symbolism or about his race but would like to know what he plans to actually do.

Suggesting people check their tire pressure is not an energy plan.