I think this stems from his remark the other day that's getting spun on talk radio such as Hannity yesterday. Obama said the following:

We know what kind of campaign they're going to run. They're going to try to make you afraid. They're going to try to make you afraid of me. They're going to say you know what, "He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. Did I mention he's black?" The tone is missing, however, and critical:

YouTube - Obama - "They're Going To Make You Afraid Of Me"

He said this in front of a Jacksonville fundraising group where the support group was getting a chuckle out of it.

I really didn't see anything wrong with it in its context. He was referring to the common smears against him that indeed are pervasive.

As I see it, those making a big issue of it seem to be those types of talk radio and other similar pundits who actually trade on such scares and smears. For example, thos comments in the OP, those are strawmen by known adversaries like Rush's Bo Snerdley schtick (which is playing on race blatantly) where on the Rush Limbaugh show he and they were just earlier tossing out another one such as the false "there is a tape of Michelle railing against 'Whitey' at Wright's church" smear etc. For them, it just seemed the old 'the best defence is offence' and who are looking for a 'twofer' of slamming his as having the nerve to introduce race if he calls them out on it.

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