Both Barack Obama and John McCain broke with their promise not to campaign negatively at the very moment they actually started running. As usual in American politics, politicians use negative campaigning simply because it works.

In recent weeks, McCain’s campaign has ‘accused’ Obama of being an empty suit; he’s a celebrity ala Paris Hilton, but not more than that, they say. In return, Obama’s campaign has now played the race card.

The notion that Obama and Hilton are comparable is ludicrous, of course. Yes, Obama is a celebrity, and he may be something of an empty suit, but to compare these two individuals is nonsensical. Yet, McCain et al. did and continue to do it.

Obama and his supporters could have responded with a smile, taking the highroad. But that’s not how they have operated during the race for the Democratic nomination, let alone directly for the presidency. They decided to go on the counterattack, now accusing McCain of running a ‘racist campaign.’

This charge is even more ludicrous and, especially, insulting than the other one mentioned above. The race card has been used against Hillary Clinton to great effect, and it seems that Obama et al. believe that it could also work against his Republican opponent. So, what do they do? Right, they pretend that one of the most open minded Republicans around, who has frequently talked about reaching out to African-Americans, and so on, is a racist.

Interestingly enough, the reality of the situation is that McCain has never used Obama’s race against him. Never in the past couple of months has McCain insinuated that people should be afraid of Obama because he’s black. No, he wants people to vote for himself, and against Obama, because the latter is too inexperienced, and a lightweight. But that’s not ‘racist’; that’s pointing out that someone has no experience.

No, the one constantly mentioning Obama’s skin color… ‘is Barack Obama.’

So now, those of you who find Obama’s inexperience or his policy prescriptions — or even his personality — lacking, have fallen prey to bigoted politics. You are too frightened to see the light. The hope.

Yet, in reality, the typical American, according to a recent Gallup poll, is far more prone to spurn an elderly candidate (or gay, atheist, Hispanic, Jew, etc.) than they are to reject an African-American candidate.

One of the appealing aspects of Obama’s early run this year was that he transcended these stale tactics — even as his own party, mind you, was injecting race into the campaign.

Then again, with this much power at stake, it was bound to get ugly.

Change? Not exactly.

And not exactly no change, but worse; he’s playing the game dirtier than many other politicians would do in his situation, and have done in recent months. He ran a more negative campaign than Hillary Clinton, and he’s now running a more negative campaign than John McCain. His words about running a clean, positive campaign, have been proven empty.

But then again, we all knew that months ago, and we know it now. This is nothing new. The only question was when Obama would use the race card against McCain, not if he would use it.

He has now used it, and my prediction is that the race will become increasingly negative.

Then again, hasn’t it always been like that?

Lastly, interestingly enough, Obama’s strategy to portray Americans as inherently racist and ‘too afraid’ to vote for a black man seems to be quite in line with the thinking at his former Church. Black liberation theology in action.