Barack Obama played the race card in a speech he made in Springfield Mo. on July 23, 2008.

He said “Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain has any answers to the challenges we face, so what they are going to try to do is make you scared… of me.” He went on to state his oppnents will say, “‘You know, he is not patriotic enough; he’s got a funny name; he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills; he is risky…’ That is essentially the argument they’re making.”

I prefaced this story by saying that Obama played the race card because John McCain’s campaign manager charged that Obama falsely accused the McCain campaign of injecting race into the presidential contest.

For over two weeks after that speech, McCain’s team used it to prove that Obama was playing the race card. Campaign manager Rick Davis responded to the dollar-bill attack by saying, “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

I should warn you up front that I am about to give you an example of the McCain campaign team doing exactly what they call playing the race card as well as the effects McCain’s destructive strategy.

Obama predicted they’d say ‘He is not patriotic enough.’

Sarah Palin actually said “Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country on October 4 ’08.

Barack Obama said his opposition would think “He’s got a funny name.”

Lee County Sheriff, Mike Scott, “Let’s leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened.” Scott was one of the introductory speakers at a rally for Palin on October 6.

Obama predictied they’think, ‘He doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills.’

McCain campaign ad: What will he change next the hundred dollar bill? The ad showed a hundred dollar bill with a picture of Obama in it. This ad was released on June 28.

Barack Obama: I know you don’t really like what we are doing, but he (Obama) is risky.

McCain Ad: Barack Obama… too risky for America. The ad was released on October 9th.

This is how Obama concluded his speech on July 23rd:

“What is more risky? Bringing about change that we know we have to make in order to assure that our kids have a better future, or doing the same things that we have been doing over and over again even though we know they don’t work?

“We are in a time right now when it is too risky not to change. It is risky to keep on doing what we are doing; to accept the tired status quo.”

The McCain team was trying to do was accuse Obama of playing the race card so when they did do as Obama warned, he, Obama would be afraid to point out the blatant forms of racism bigotry.

That was before Palin agreed to join the ticket that would use her to flame the fires of bigotry and hate into their supporters.

Let’s look at the results of McCain’s destructive strategy.

The shout of “kill him” followed a Sarah Palin rant on Obama’s relationship with radical Chicagoan Bill Ayers, and videos of McCain supporters calling Obama a terrorist started popping all over the internet and news.

In an attempt to clean up the mess his team created, McCain told an errant suppprter, “I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments; I will respect him and I want everyone to be respectful.”

One person referenced his statement by saying that he is afraid of an Obama presidency. McCain responded by saying, “I have to tell you he (Obama) is a decent person and a person that you don’t have to be scared of as President of the U.S.” His audience started jeering him for making that statement.

One woman said she can’t trust Obama, then accused him of being an Arab. McCain had to take the mic from the woman and correct the mistatment about Obama’s race.

McCain’s incoherent and radical strategy is forcing many in his conservative base to question if McCain is really interested in winning.

His erratic strategy has prompted Democratic Congressman John Lewis to accuse McCain and his running mate of “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” saying it reminded him of the segregationist era of Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

McCain and Palin chose to go negative during a time when most of the voters are paying attention.

It has caused him to fall in the polls and prompted some of his Republican supporters to question his tactics.

McCain campaign officials are becoming increasingly discouraged, from junior aides to top advisers. Tensions have grown over how hard to go after Obama amid concerns about irreparably damaging McCain’s straight-shooter reputation.

One thing is for sure, the McCain team played the race card in an underhanded way, and it backfired in a way that could cost him the chance of becoming thev next President.