Obama Expects More "Divide and Distract" Politics
(HENDERSON, NEV.) - Barack Obama continued to warn voters today that in the last days of the campaign, John McCain's tone and rhetoric against him will be intensified.
"He's spending these last weeks calling me every name except a Child of God because that's how you play the game in Washington," Obama told a crowd of thousands at Coronado High School this morning.
"I expect we're going to see a lot more of that over the next few days. More of the slash-and-burn, say-anything, do-anything politics that's calculated to divide and distract," he added.
Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod had a similar warning for reporters when he was asked to comment on a story about Obama's aunt, who has been living in the United States illegally.
"I think people are suspicious about stories that surface in the last 72 hours of a national campaign," Axelrod said, "And I think that they're going to take that - they're going to put it in that context."
Late yesterday, the Associated Press reported that Zeituni Onyango, Barack Obama Sr.'s half-sister is living in a Boston housing project. Onyango is a Kenyan national and had applied for asylum to the U.S., but her request was denied.
This morning spokesman Bill Burton said Obama did not know that his aunt was living in the United States but that he "believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed."
Onyango contributed $265 to Obama the campaign, but aides say the funds will be returned. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to contribute to a presidential campaign.
Neither the McCain campaign nor the RNC have commented on the story.