As conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote this month, "Mr. Obama will not be easy for Republicans to attack. . . . There are many reasons, but a primary one is that the fact of his race will freeze them."
No political consultant, she wrote, "will think it easy -- or professionally desirable -- to take him down in a low manner." The upshot: Simply by the fact of who he is, and the color of his skin, Obama has taken a weapon out of his rivals' arsenal and put it to his own use.
Todd Shaw, an assistant professor of political science and African American studies at the University of South Carolina, said that Obama was the immediate beneficiary when McCain pledged to conduct "a respectful debate."
"If [McCain] goes back on that, or his supporters go back on that," Shaw said, "that's where the Obama campaign could say, 'Well, we had hoped that Sen. McCain had observed these rules of engagement, but he hasn't.' "
In fact, the behavior of his supporters is more worrisome to the McCain campaign than the prospect of running against a black nominee for the first time in presidential history.
The Tennessee Republican Party sent out a press release this week that used Obama's middle name, included a photo of Obama in traditional Somalian dress and accused him of surrounding himself with anti-Semites.
McCain was asked about the document at a press conference Wednesday in San Antonio. While he said that "I'm not excusing anything that anybody does," he noted that he is not yet the party's nominee, and, therefore, can't do much about it.
"I will continue to treat Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama with respect, just as I have treated my primary opponents with great respect," McCain said. "And if I'm the nominee of the party, I will obviously make sure that everyone within my party knows that this has got to be a respectful debate."
Mark Salter, one of McCain's closest advisors, said in an interview that "we'll do the best we can" to keep surrogates and independently funded advocacy groups in line.
"If somebody were to get after [Obama] for his race, McCain would denounce it," Salter said. "But in terms of how McCain competes with him, it's not going to make any difference if he's African American, Latino, Caucasian, Asian."
That suits the Obama camp just fine, said David Axelrod, the senator's top political advisor. "I do not think and never would say we expect to be treated differently than anyone else," he said.
