Explosive issue of race flares up

By Liz Sidoti - Associated Press

WASHINGTON — John McCain accused Barack Obama of playing politics with race on Thursday, raising the explosive issue after the first black candidate with a serious chance of winning the White House claimed Republicans will try to scare voters by saying he ”doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.“

Until now, the subject of race has been almost taboo in the campaign, at least in public, with both sides fearing its destructive force.

”I'm disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he's saying,“ McCain told reporters in Racine, Wis. The Arizona senator said he agreed with campaign manager Rick Davis' statement earlier that ”Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.“ The aide was suggesting McCain had been wrongfully accused.

In turn, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said, ”We weren't suggesting in any way he's using race as an issue“ but that McCain ”is using the same, old low-road politics that voters are very unhappy about to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign.“

The back-and-forth was the latest spike in a contest that's grown increasingly negative.

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