You know how you can tell when you’re getting to Obama?  He starts blustering about “distractions.” He did it earlier this year, and he’s doing it again now.

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday charged that Sen. John McCain’s campaign is launching “Swift boat-style attacks” on him instead of addressing the country’s problems.

“Sen. McCain and his operatives are gambling that they can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They’d rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up,” Obama said at an event in Asheville, North Carolina.

“That’s what you do when you’re out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time,” he said.

Notice that bit about tearing Barry’s campaign down instead of building the country up?  Fancy bit of rhetoric, that.  He’s saying that if you don’t like the Barack Obama campaign, you don’t want to help America.

Arrogant.  Presumptive.  Mean-spirited.

And the “distractions” ruse is just that.  A ruse.  Obama wants to just dismiss all criticism of his campaign with a wave of his hand, and the media is more than willing to let him do it.  But that’s not how politics work in America.  Obama is actually going to have to address these criticisms of him.  Or he should have to address them, just as other politicians do.