Obama Plays Race Card - McCain Calls Him on It

By Tim Grubbs
August 1, 2008
Politics

We learned yesterday that McCain isn’t walking on eggshells as Obama persistently and subtly alludes to the one thing he has going for him in this race: race.

As far as credentials, the only thing Obama has going for him to be the next President of the United States is the fact that it would make him the first “African-American” to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. He has minimal experience as a leader, and his experience for Washington politics reaches back as far as only 2005. Three years of experience as a Junior Senator would qualify no one - and does not qualify Obama.

So, when Obama came out with a not-so-subtle statement that his political opponents are attacking him on the basis that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills,” the McCain campaign took Obama’s race card, raised the stakes, and called the bet using the very code language used in race-baiting for advantage: “divisive.” McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis said, “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong,” and McCain agreed.

While the political eggshell-walking will continue, to provide an appearance of taking the high-road, it seems readily apparent that these candidates are contending with the very issues average Americans see from afar, that racism is fuelled by people who play the “race card.”