Say Anything Blog

Apparently the Obama campaign thinks we’re all very, very dumb.  In response to criticism of Obama’s comments yesterday about McCain trying to scare voters away from him because he “doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, he’s a got a funny name,” the Obama campaign had this to say:

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator was not referring to race.

“What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn’t get here after spending decades in Washington,” Gibbs said Thursday. “There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.”

It’s not about race?  Obama says McCain is fear mongering about him not looking like the other Presidents, and that comment isn’t about race?  So what, then, was Obama talking about?  That he has a different hairstyle?  Wears a different sort of clothes than those put on by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison?

If that’s what he was talking about, McCain doesn’t look like the Presidents on the currency either.

And let’s not forget this comment from Obama from last month:

“We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid.

“They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”

So, was that comment not about race too?

I know a lot of liberals, particularly fringe leftists who make up Obama’s base, take it as an article of faith that Republicans are racist.  But shouldn’t McCain and his allies actually have to make a racist argument against Obama before they get accused of it?

Update:

Here’s the expanded quote from Obama’s spokesman referring to the “I don’t look like the Presidents on the currency” comment:

“What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn’t get here after spending decades in Washington,” Gibbs said. “There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.”

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that most Americans don’t consider the founding fathers who grace our currency to be the sort of cynical career politicians who roam around in Washington today.