Obama-McCain race turns toxic

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House contest between Barack Obama and John McCain took one of its nastiest lurches yet Thursday as the campaign air filled with accusations of race-baiting and gutter politics.
Top campaign issues such as the economy and the Iraq war took a back-seat, as the Republican McCain responded with fury to Obama's claims that his opponents would exploit his exotic name and appearance for electoral gain.
The Democrat in turn said McCain, his campaign reinforced by proteges of President George W. Bush's long-time aide Karl Rove, was stooping to the "low road" of politics with a slew of character attacks.
"Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong," said McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis in a statement.
Asked if Davis's criticism was fair, McCain told CNN: "I'm sorry to say that it is. It's legitimate.
"There's no place in this campaign for that. There's no place for it and we shouldn't be doing it," the Arizona senator said at a stop in Wisconsin.
In Missouri on Wednesday, the African-American Obama had said McCain's campaign was mounting personal attacks against him to divert attention from what he said was a dearth of solutions to America's problems.
"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, you know, he's risky,'" Obama said, ridiculing supposed attacks against him.
In a statement Thursday, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the Democrat had not intended to suggest McCain was exploiting race as a means to undermine Obama's historic shot at the White House.
"This is a race about big challenges -- a slumping economy, a broken foreign policy, and an energy crisis for everyone but the oil companies," he said.