By Steve Holland
RACINE, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Republican White Househopeful John McCain's campaign accused Democrat Barack Obama onThursday of playing racial politics in some of the most bitingback-and-forth of the presidential campaign.
The negative twist in the campaign for the November 4election was prompted by a McCain television advertisement onWednesday that called Obama a celebrity akin to star-crossedU.S. personalities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
In response, Obama said McCain was trying to scare votersaway from him by pointing out he has "a funny name, and hedoesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills andthe five dollar bills."
Obama, whose father was Kenyan, would be the first blackU.S. president. Only white men, most of them former presidents,are on U.S. paper currency.
"Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played itfrom the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shamefuland wrong," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said in awritten statement.
Obama fired back during a town hall meeting in CedarRapids, Iowa, saying the attacks did not help voters deal withthe array of problems they face.
"You'd think we'd be having a serious debate but so far allwe've been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Ido have to ask my opponent: Is that the best you can come upwith?" Obama said.
He said McCain had pledged to run an honourable campaignbut had fallen back into "these negative ads, these negativeattacks."
McCain defended the ad when a woman asked him about it at atown hall meeting in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
The woman said the tone of the ad did not square with hisearlier promises to avoid "mudslinging" and asked him whetherhe was now flip-flopping.
But McCain said "we're proud of that commercial."
"I admire his (Obama's) campaign, but what we are talkingabout here is substance and not style. And what we're talkingabout is who has an agenda for the future of America. Campaignsare tough, but I am proud of the campaign that we have run,"McCain said.
UNDERDOG
The McCain campaign is trying to shake up a race thatcurrently favours Obama at a time when the U.S. economy isweak, the U.S. military is stretched fighting two wars, and theannual budget deficit is approaching a half trillion dollars.
The McCain campaign believes the 71-year-old Arizonasenator is the underdog but that the race is close and istrying to paint Obama as an inexperienced lightweight.
McCain went through a point-by-point litany of questionsabout Obama's positions on taxes, energy and the Iraq war.
Noting Obama's opposition to offshore oil drilling, he saidhis Democratic rival had urged Americans to make sure theirtires were properly inflated as a way to increase gas mileage.
"Yesterday, he suggested that we put air in our tires tosave on gas. My friends, let's do that. But do you think that'senough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don'tthink so," he said to chuckles from the crowd in this Milwaukeesuburb.
The "celebrity" television ad showed spliced images ofSpears and Hilton with video of Obama addressing 200,000Germans in Berlin last week.
The McCain side defended the ad, which generated muchpublicity, and said the Obama camp was over-reacting.
"It celebrates the excitement that he has generated, thatis certainly more akin to the excitement that a celebritygenerates than a normal politician," McCain senior adviserNicolle Wallace said on MSNBC.
But Obama adviser Robert Gibbs said on NBC's "Today" showthat McCain is "running an increasingly dishonourablecampaign."
"The McCain campaign has very clearly decided that the onlyway to win this election is to become very personal and verynegative. We believe that people will see that as nothing morethan the same old politics and the same old policies of thelast eight years," he said.
Both candidates vying to succeed President George W. Bushhave said in the past they planned to run campaigns that wouldstay away from negative attacks and mud-slinging that havemarked some presidential contests in recent years.
(Additional reporting by John Whitesides, editing by DavidWiessler and Jackie Frank)
