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McCain, Obama battle over race
McCain campaign says Obama 'played the race card'
The Associated Press
updated 9:28 p.m. CT, Fri., Aug. 1, 2008
The presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain traded charges over who was guilty of injecting race into the presidential debate and blamed each other Friday for its increasingly negative tone.
McCain has accused Obama, who aims to become the first black U.S. president, of playing politics with racial issues for predicting that McCain and others in the Republican Party would try to scare voters by saying the Democrat "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said Friday that race became an issue only when the McCain campaign cast a slant on Obama's remarks.
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, accused Obama on Thursday of playing "the race card."
Obama did not explain the comment. But it evoked images of U.S. bills featuring the faces of past presidents, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. All were white men, and all but Grant were older than Obama, 46, when elected.
McCain has not used race as an issue so far in his campaign, but got heat in the past for voting against a federal holiday honoring civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He has said he was wrong to vote against the establishment of the holiday.
"We are not going to let anybody paint John McCain, who has fought his entire life for equal rights for everyone, to be able to be painted as racist," Davis said Friday on "Today" on NBC.
Axelrod rejected the charge and repeated the assertion that Obama was talking about his status as a young, relative newcomer to Washington politics, not about his race.
"Barack Obama never called John McCain a racist," Axelrod said on "The Early Show" on CBS. "What Barack Obama was saying is he's not exactly from Central Casting for presidential candidates."
Despite vows against it, campaign gets negative
The campaign that has recently grown negative — something both men vowed to avoid but that has come relatively early before the November election. The race remains tight as McCain has narrowed Obama's lead in critical battleground states.
Both candidates were in Florida on Friday. At one point, Obama was heckled by blacks who said he hadn't spoken out enough about issues affecting the black community.
McCain spoke at the annual conference of the National Urban League, an influential black organization that Obama will address on Saturday.
The Republican criticized Obama as coming up short on public school reform and said the first-term senator's "ideas are not always as impressive as his rhetoric."
During a feisty question-and-answer session at the conference in Orlando, Fla., McCain drew gasps and grumbles from the mostly black crowd when he praised former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The one-time Republican presidential candidate was widely scorned by many civil rights leaders for permitting the city's police department to use overly aggressive tactics against black criminal suspects.
Giuliani, McCain told the group, transformed New York from "a city really none of us were comfortable walking in the streets to one that was basically safe."
McCain repeated his claim that "the best equal opportunity employer in the country is the U.S. military." An Associated Press study found that while blacks make up about 17 percent of the total force, just 9 percent of officers are black.
Still, McCain made several comments that pleased the audience. Among other things, he vowed to step up Justice Department investigations of civil rights violations if elected and said he would appoint U.S. attorneys based on qualifications, not politics.
Race has been a sensitive issue in the campaign. Obama often draws attention to the unique nature of his campaign and says he is aware there are doubts among some voters because, for example, he has "a funny name." Obama is the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya.
The subject broke into the open earlier this year when Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, came under fire for sermons in which he accused the government of conspiring against blacks. Seeking to stem the fallout, Obama gave a high-profile speech about racial tension and later left his church.
Obama heckled
Obama tried Friday to bring the debate back to the economy, which Americans say is their number one issue. At a stop in St. Petersburg, Fla., he called for a $1,000 "emergency" rebate to consumers to offset soaring energy costs amid fresh signs of a struggling economy and an unemployment rate climbing to a four-year high.
But the subject turned to race again when he was interrupted by three men who stood up with a banner asking, "What about the black community, Obama?"
During a question-and-answer period, Obama called on one of the men, who said the candidate has not spoken out enough on predatory lending, the government's response after Hurricane Katrina destroyed black neighborhoods in New Orleans and the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day in New York.
Obama defended his record, saying he had spoken out on all those issues, adding, "The only way to solve the problems in this country is if we all come together — black and white."
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25973291/
McCain campaign says Obama 'played the race card'
The Associated Press
updated 9:28 p.m. CT, Fri., Aug. 1, 2008
The presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain traded charges over who was guilty of injecting race into the presidential debate and blamed each other Friday for its increasingly negative tone.
McCain has accused Obama, who aims to become the first black U.S. president, of playing politics with racial issues for predicting that McCain and others in the Republican Party would try to scare voters by saying the Democrat "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said Friday that race became an issue only when the McCain campaign cast a slant on Obama's remarks.
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, accused Obama on Thursday of playing "the race card."
Obama did not explain the comment. But it evoked images of U.S. bills featuring the faces of past presidents, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. All were white men, and all but Grant were older than Obama, 46, when elected.
McCain has not used race as an issue so far in his campaign, but got heat in the past for voting against a federal holiday honoring civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He has said he was wrong to vote against the establishment of the holiday.
"We are not going to let anybody paint John McCain, who has fought his entire life for equal rights for everyone, to be able to be painted as racist," Davis said Friday on "Today" on NBC.
Axelrod rejected the charge and repeated the assertion that Obama was talking about his status as a young, relative newcomer to Washington politics, not about his race.
"Barack Obama never called John McCain a racist," Axelrod said on "The Early Show" on CBS. "What Barack Obama was saying is he's not exactly from Central Casting for presidential candidates."
Despite vows against it, campaign gets negative
The campaign that has recently grown negative — something both men vowed to avoid but that has come relatively early before the November election. The race remains tight as McCain has narrowed Obama's lead in critical battleground states.
Both candidates were in Florida on Friday. At one point, Obama was heckled by blacks who said he hadn't spoken out enough about issues affecting the black community.
McCain spoke at the annual conference of the National Urban League, an influential black organization that Obama will address on Saturday.
The Republican criticized Obama as coming up short on public school reform and said the first-term senator's "ideas are not always as impressive as his rhetoric."
During a feisty question-and-answer session at the conference in Orlando, Fla., McCain drew gasps and grumbles from the mostly black crowd when he praised former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The one-time Republican presidential candidate was widely scorned by many civil rights leaders for permitting the city's police department to use overly aggressive tactics against black criminal suspects.
Giuliani, McCain told the group, transformed New York from "a city really none of us were comfortable walking in the streets to one that was basically safe."
McCain repeated his claim that "the best equal opportunity employer in the country is the U.S. military." An Associated Press study found that while blacks make up about 17 percent of the total force, just 9 percent of officers are black.
Still, McCain made several comments that pleased the audience. Among other things, he vowed to step up Justice Department investigations of civil rights violations if elected and said he would appoint U.S. attorneys based on qualifications, not politics.
Race has been a sensitive issue in the campaign. Obama often draws attention to the unique nature of his campaign and says he is aware there are doubts among some voters because, for example, he has "a funny name." Obama is the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya.
The subject broke into the open earlier this year when Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, came under fire for sermons in which he accused the government of conspiring against blacks. Seeking to stem the fallout, Obama gave a high-profile speech about racial tension and later left his church.
Obama heckled
Obama tried Friday to bring the debate back to the economy, which Americans say is their number one issue. At a stop in St. Petersburg, Fla., he called for a $1,000 "emergency" rebate to consumers to offset soaring energy costs amid fresh signs of a struggling economy and an unemployment rate climbing to a four-year high.
But the subject turned to race again when he was interrupted by three men who stood up with a banner asking, "What about the black community, Obama?"
During a question-and-answer period, Obama called on one of the men, who said the candidate has not spoken out enough on predatory lending, the government's response after Hurricane Katrina destroyed black neighborhoods in New Orleans and the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day in New York.
Obama defended his record, saying he had spoken out on all those issues, adding, "The only way to solve the problems in this country is if we all come together — black and white."
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25973291/
