By Michael Cooper
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — He has a television ad likening Senator Barack Obama’s celebrity status to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and a Web video juxtaposing footage of Mr. Obama with a clip of Charlton Heston, as Moses, parting the Red Sea. But Senator John McCain said Friday that he is running a respectful campaign, not a negative one.
“Well, I don’t think it’s negative,’’ he said, when asked why he was focusing on character instead of issues. “I think we are drawing the differences between us.”
“I don’t think our campaign is negative in the slightest,’’ Mr. McCain went on. “I’m, we think, it’s got a lot of humor in it, and we’re having fun and enjoying it. And that is what campaigns are going to be like, that’s what every campaign that I have been involved in. I am going to enjoy it and I’m the underdog. And we will continue to fight and scrap all the way till November the fourth.’’
Asked if his campaign’s accusation Thursday that Mr. Obama had played “the race card” with his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by noting that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills’’ had been intended to move the issue of race to the forefront of the campaign, Mr. McCain said: “I didn’t bring up the issue.’’
“I did not bring up the issue,’’ he repeated. “Senator Obama did, three times in one day. And his campaign later retracted it.”
“So I think it’s pretty obvious that at least they acknowledged that. So he brought up the issue of race, I responded to it. Because I’m disappointed, and I don’t want that issue to be part of this campaign. And since his campaign retracted it, I’m ready to move on. And I think we should move on.’’
(The McCain campaign said that it interpreted the Obama campaign’s statement that Mr. Obama did not believe Mr. McCain was using race as an issue as a retraction; the Obama campaign said that it was an indication that the McCain campaign had wrongly interpreted the comments.)
Mr. McCain said that his Web ad, comparing Mr. Obama to Moses, mocking grandiloquent passages from his speeches and describing his as “The One,” was just “having some fun,’’ and brushed off a question about its use of religious imagery, noting that it was just an old movie clip.
“This is a very respectful campaign,’’ he said. “I’ve repeated my admiration and respect for Senator Obama. That clip is of Charlton Heston. It’s a movie. It’s a film, movie. So, I really appreciated the movie and I appreciated Charlton Heston’s magnificent acting skills as I saw it, but it’s a movie.’’
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