Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden called out his GOP rivals for their attacks of late, accusing John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, of practicing the politics of “fear” in their attacks against Democratic candidate Barack Obama. But Biden stopping short of calling it racism.

Joe Biden arrives at Tampa International Airport to speak a rally at the University of South Florida
At a rally in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday, Biden had some harsh words for the Republican ticket. “They’re going to take the low road, the low road to the highest office in the land,” Biden said.

The Delaware senator, a long-time Senate colleague and friend of McCain, said the Arizona senator had filled his campaign with some of the “political manipulators” from President George W. Bush’s team in 2000. He brought up that year’s South Carolina primary, when rumors spread that the McCains’ adopted daughter was McCain’s child from an affair.

“The McCain campaign went out and hired some of the very political manipulators in the Republican primary who, in 2000, led those vicious attacks against John’s daughter and John’s lovely wife,” Biden said.

He continued: “They’re attacking Barack Obama in the ugliest of ways. Ladies and gentleman, this is beyond disappointing, this is beyond disappointing, this is wrong.”

As for McCain’s comment at a rally this week in New Mexico–when the Republican nominee asked “Who is the real Barack Obama?”–Biden said it was a “veiled” question and an “appeal to fear.” He also responded to Palin’s attacks of late, where she insinuated that Obama has a close relationship with 1960s-radical-turned-college-professor Bill Ayers. “To have a vice presidential candidate raise the most outrageous inferences, the ones that John McCain’s campaign is condoning, is simply wrong,” he said.

UPDATE: Responding to Biden’s comments, McCain campaign spokesman Ben Porritt did not defend the original attacks but instead lobbed another round at the Democrats. “What Barack Obama and his running mate fundamentally lack is a record of making change or reform and in turn the credibility to call for it,” he said. “Their ‘run with the herd’ mentality, radical associations, and partisan proposals have made them the most liberal ticket in political history.”

Source: WSJ

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