Obama plays the race card again.

[Verily]

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By his statement there, he is already implicating McCain in the attacks.  As far as #1 goes, see my reply to Franzl.

Certainly some of the character attacks are that way. They're designed to raise questions about his "Americanness", which ultimately is about convincing people he's not American enough to be President. That's not quite racial, but it is ethnic, and appearance is part of that. And it is the McCain campaign doing that directly.