Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, lashed out at opponent, John McCain, accusing him of running a sleazy campaign. 

I wouldn't call McCain's campaign sleazy, but bare-knuckled dog fighting. McCain is in it to win it. I've warned in this Column for about two months that Obama needed to get tougher with the ads and his stance or watch the election slip away. The polls and turn out for McCain/Palin are now indicating a Republican resurgence.

Politics is not a pretty game. For decades, my dad has been a very active senior member of a major political party in my homeland. As a result, I grew up hearing about domestic and international politics, what works and what doesn't.

John McCain and Sarah Palin

With all that Obama has going against him (i.e. being black in American politics) his campaign should have brought the heat from day one with the intent to proverbially crush and steamroll McCain, who has been playing the Washington game for a long time.

Yes, by all means have integrity and class, but in politics you cannot treat a growling lion, no matter its age, with kid gloves. Because at the end of the day, a lion is still a lion and if it wants your lunch badly enough it will take it.

Obama aide: McCain campaign 'sleaziest' in modern history

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's spokesman on Saturday accused Sen. John McCain of "cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history."

Obama, speaking to a crowd Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire, said, "John McCain wants to have a debate about national security; let's have that debate. I warned that going into Iraq would distract us from Afghanistan. John McCain cheerleaded for it. John McCain was wrong, and I was right."

"The McCain-[Sarah] Palin ticket, they don't want to debate the Obama-Biden ticket on issues because they are running on eight more years of what we've just seen. And they know it," the Democratic presidential nominee said. "As a consequence, what they're going to spend the next seven, eight weeks doing is trying to distract you.

"They're going to talk about pigs, and they're going to talk about lipstick; they're going to talk about Paris Hilton, they're going to talk about Britney Spears. They will try to distort my record, and they will try to undermine your trust in what the Democrats intend to do." Video Watch more of Obama's comments »

Asked why the campaign's tone was different from its tone during Hurricane Gustav, Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said, "We have enormous concern for people down there ... that's why we canceled 'Saturday Night Live' ... but these people also came out because they're really concerned about the future of the country, and he [Obama] wanted to talk about those issues."

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds criticized Obama for showing "zero restraint" given the storm and said the "attacks mark a new low from Barack Obama."

"We will take no lectures from John McCain, who is cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office he is seeking."

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