Earlier today when asked about recent comments by Bill & Hillary Clinton that some saw as racially motivated Senator Barack Obama said to ABC News “I don’t think it was in any way a racial comment. That’s something that has played out in the press. That’s not my view.”

Obama also called reporters together to say he did not want to see the campaign “degenerate into so much tit-for-tat, back-and-forth that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this” and “Bill and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of the civil rights movement.”

Meanwhile Senator Hillary Clinton released the following statement:

“Over this past week, there has been a lot of discussion and back and forth - much of which I know does not reflect what is in our hearts.

“And at this moment, I believe we must seek common ground.

“Our party and our nation is bigger than this. Our party has been on the front line of every civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, workers’ rights movement, and other movements for justice in America.

“We differ on a lot of things. And it is critical to have the right kind of discussion on where we stand. But when it comes to civil rights and our commitment to diversity, when it comes to our heroes - President John F. Kennedy and Dr. King – Senator Obama and I are on the same side.

“And in that spirit, let’s come together, because I want more than anything else to ensure that our family stays together on the front lines of the struggle to expand rights for all Americans.”

After a weekend of both campaigns hitting each other and surrogates going out of their way to both help and hurt their candidates, I am sure both sides wouldn’t mind a cooling off period.

After suggestions by some in the media of a racial element in pre-NH polling and the suggestion by Obama supporter Jesse Jackson Jr. that Hillary Clinton did not shed tears for Katrina victems, race as a political issue on the campaign trail is now becoming a central issue and tactic in South Carolina and the Democratic nomination.

The movement so far began with some comments made by the Clinton camp before the NH primary. An argument against Barack Obama began by suggesting that though the profound rhetoric of Martin Luther King helped fuel the Civil Rights movement, it was President Johnson who helped push through the legislation that brought an end to segregation. It was an argument that was supposed to say something along the line of “change needs to work in harmony with experience to create outcome” which is structured to say that though Obama has great rhetorical skills and can engage a crowd, he doesn’t have the experience to accomplish what he promises.

However that comment, along with the accusation that those polled in NH may have mislead pollsters, has lead to a series of articles being published in the mainstream media and in blogs pushing race as an issue.

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From ABC News Bill Clinton unloads on Barack Obama’s perceived free-ride from the press. Calls Obama’s candidacy and the press coverage “Big Fairy Tale”.

From MSNBC

“It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time–not once, ‘Well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn’t know how you would have voted on the resolution? You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war. And you took that speech you’re now running on off your Web site in 2004. And there’s no difference in your voting record and Hillary’s ever since.’”

Bill was then asked about Mark Penn’s “where’s the bounce” memo and 42 went off. “The bounce always occurs on the second day not the first day,” Mr. Clinton said, conceding the mistake before turning the table on the questioner and the Obama camp. “What did you think about the Obama thing calling Hillary the senator from Punjab? Did you like that? Or what about the Obama handout that was covered up, the press never reported on, implying that I was a crook. Scouring me-scathing criticism over my financial reports. Ken Starr spent $70 million to find out that I wouldn’t take a nickel to see the cow jump over the moon.”

“So you can take a shot at Mark Penn if you want. It wasn’t his best day. He was hurt. He felt badly we didn’t do better in Iowa,” Mr. Clinton explained during the forum. “But the idea that one of these campaigns is positive and the other is negative when I know the reverse is true and I have seen it and I have been blistered by it for months is a little tough to take just because of the sanitizing coverage that’s in the media doesn’t mean the facts aren’t out there.”