A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.

MCCAIN CAMP SAYS OBAMA IS PLAYING 'RACE CARD'
(Michael Cooper and Michael Powell, New York Times)
With his rejoinder about playing “the race card,” Mr. Davis effectively assured that race would once again become an unavoidable issue as voters face an election in which, for the first time, one of the major parties’ nominees is African-American. And with its criticism, the McCain campaign was ensuring that Mr. Obama’s race — he is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas — would again be a factor in coverage of the presidential race. On Thursday, it took the spotlight from Mr. Obama when he had sought to attack Mr. McCain on energy issues. The tactic could cut both ways: it might tap into the qualms some white, working-class voters in crucial swing states may have about a black candidate, or it could ricochet back against the McCain campaign, which has been accused even by some fellow Republicans of engaging in overly negative campaigning in recent days. The remarks put Mr. Obama’s campaign, which has tried to keep him from being pigeonholed or defined by race, in a delicate position. He did not address the matter himself on Thursday, and his campaign gingerly tried to tamp down the issue, saying he did not believe that Mr. McCain had tried to use race as an issue.

RACE RETURNS:
Race Issue Moves to the Center of Campaign (Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith, Politico)
McCain aides say their goal is to pre-empt what they believe is Obama's effort to paint any conventional campaign attacks as race-based. Obama’s aim, in the view of the McCain camp: "to delegitimize any line of attack against him," said McCain aide Steve Schmidt. He said he saw that potential trap being sprung when Obama predicted in Missouri Wednesday that the GOP nominee would attack the Democrat because he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." "I don't [care] whether it helps or hurts us," Schmidt said. "A lie unresponded to becomes the truth."... To campaign watchers, in fact, Obama's warning Wednesday seemed less a direct attack on McCain than as part of a running effort to cast all attacks on Obama in the worst possible light: as products of ignorance at best and bigotry at worst. But Schmidt said McCain had learned the lesson of Clinton's campaign, which began by taking her and her husband's affinity with African-American voters for granted but wound up seeing days and weeks consumed by racially charged gaffes and allegations 

Say What? (New York Times Editorial Board)
The retort was, we must say, not only contemptible, but shrewd. It puts the sin for the racial attack not on those who made it, but on the victim of the attack. It also — and we wish this were coincidence, but we doubt it — conjurs up another loaded racial image. The phrase dealing the race card “from the bottom of the deck” entered the national lexicon during the O.J. Simpson saga. Robert Shapiro, one of Mr. Simpson’s lawyers, famously declared of himself, Johnny Cochran and the rest of the Simpson defense team, “Not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck.” It’s ugly stuff. How about we leave Britney, Paris, and O.J. out of this — and have a presidential campaign?

Barack Lowers His Worth with Cheap 'Dollar' Shot (Charles Hurt, New York Post)
Barack Obama committed the worst blunder of his campaign by wrongly accusing President Bush, John McCain and other Republicans of trying to make voters fear him because he's not "like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." This racial calumny is completely unfair, diminishes his own campaign, and certainly is the worst possible way to win over those blue-collar white Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania who picked Hillary Rodham Clinton over him in the primary. And it's certainly not how he's gotten this far.

MCCAIN'S ATTACK STRATEGY IS UGLY BUT NOT STUPID
(Steve Kornacki, New York Observer)
The McCain of 2000 no longer exists, and thanks to issues like Iraq, couldn't exist even if his campaign made a conscious effort to resurrect him. Running a 2000-like campaign would preserve McCain's reputation and win him plenty of favorable post-election write-ups from his old media friends - but it can't win him the election. What can win him the election, as sad as it is to say, is the kind of campaign he is now resorting to. McCain's aides have privately told the press that they see the fall race as a referendum on Obama. They are right. This campaign is not about hordes of undecided voters weighing the pros and cons of McCain and Obama; it is about hordes of undecided voters who are inclined--both because of his party label and his personality--to vote for Obama, but who still have trouble imagining him as America's commander in chief. If Obama can satisfy their doubts, he will win going away--just as Ronald Reagan did in 1980, when he won the masses over in a debate a week before Election Day. If he can't, then those voters will default to McCain, the "safe" old warrior. And it will have little to do with whether or not they approved of the tone of his advertising.

THE CURIOUS MIND OF JOHN MCCAIN
(Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post)
In his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For," John McCain offered this confession -- an acknowledgment of a restless mind: "Although I seem to tolerate introspection better the older I am, there are still too many claims on my attention to permit more than the briefest excursions down the path of self-awareness. When I am no longer busy with politics, and with my own ambitions, I hope to have more time to examine what I have done and failed to do with my career, and why." A telling observation, or so it seems, and refreshingly candid for a public figure. But the words are not John McCain's. They were written by his longtime aide Mark Salter, McCain's literary alter ego... Much of what goes on inside McCain's head is neither mysterious nor hidden. There is an elaborate record of the principles and beliefs that govern McCain's thinking about politics and policy in the five books he and Salter have written, scores of speeches they have collaborated on over nearly two decades, and countless interviews, including one last week for this article. That record reveals a complicated man whose approach to the world cannot be summed up in an aphorism or two. He is a striver and a combatant, often at war with himself, who has conducted a lifelong struggle "to prove to myself that I was the man I had always wanted to be," as he has written. Multiple influences have shaped his thinking, from his famous grandfather and father, both four-star Navy admirals, to his travels and his extensive reading of history and literature.

OBAMA CAMP SEES POTENTIAL IN G.O.P. DISCONTENT
(Patrick Healy, New York Times)
Republican anger over the Iraq war and the economy has left some advisers to Mr. Obama hopeful that they can capture pockets of Republican votes on Election Day in states like Alaska, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota and Virginia. Advisers also said they had recently begun emphasizing Mr. Obama’s ties to Republicans as a way to make undecided independent voters more comfortable with him. In recent weeks, Obama aides have met with Republican leaders in crucial states to strategize about wooing undecided voters. The campaign is considering inviting Republicans to speak at the Democratic convention. Obama aides pointed to a defense by Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, a critic of the war, after Senator John McCain’s campaign ran an advertisement attacking Mr. Obama. And they have tapped sympathetic Republican brand names like Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of the former president, to reach out to party members. Obama advisers say support from Republican voters could be critical if Mr. McCain makes gains in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two states recent Democratic presidential nominees have carried but where Mr. Obama is struggling among working-class white voters.

MCCAIN'S CAMP SUFFERS FROM A PAPER GAP
(Avi Zenilman, Politico)
While campaigns typically snow reporters with white papers and policy minutiae, many of the domestic policy plans of John McCain have been notably short on details. Analysts caution that both McCain and Barack Obama have produced policy pronouncements that are just as much election documents as workable proposals; after all, that is what presidential candidates do. But when it comes to the metric of paper produced, McCain trails Obama in spelling out the nitty-gritty. "The Obama people are much more detailed," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan advocacy group dedicated to balancing the budget. Consider McCain campaign senior adviser Taylor Griffin’s description of his candidate's plan for fixing Social Security: "The history of the Social Security debate has taught that too many specifics, especially during a presidential campaign, has polarized the debate," he said of the program that McCain called "an absolute disgrace [that's] got to be fixed." Will he contrast his plan to that of his opponent? "Sen. McCain believes this is so important that we do not politicize this debate during an election season." What, then, is the plan? There doesn't appear to be a page dedicated to it on the McCain website. 

ANOTHER 'DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN' ELECTION?
(Rhodes Cook, Wall Street Journal)
It has been 60 years since President Harry Truman came from behind to defeat New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, scoring one of the greatest upsets in American history... Why bring up the campaign of 1948 now? Because from this vantage point, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama could be moving dangerously close to reprising the role of the imperious Mr. Dewey. That would leave to his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, the part of Mr. Truman as the scrappy underdog, a crowd-pleasing role that the Arizona senator relishes auditioning for... Just as the Democrats now, the Republicans in 1948 were bullish about their chances of capturing the White House after winning control of both houses of Congress two years earlier. As in the present, the campaign of 1948 was widely viewed as a "change" election, with a significant gap in ages between the two major-party nominees. Mr. Dewey, at 46 years old (the same age as Sen. Obama, who turns 47 on Monday), represented a new generation of leaders ready to move to the fore after World War II. Mr. Truman was nearly 20 years his senior, old enough to have served with distinction in World War I as a field artillery captain... The press affirmed the GOP optimism, boosted by a phalanx of polls throughout the summer and early fall showing Mr. Dewey running comfortably ahead...The message for Sens. Obama and McCain: Don't think for a moment that this presidential campaign is over. 

MCCAIN, OBAMA TILT OVER TAXES
(Laura Meckler, Wall Street Journal)
Sen. John McCain continues to slam rival Barack Obama for wanting to raise taxes on Social Security, even as he periodically explains that he might be willing to do the same. At times the Republican presidential candidate leaves audiences thinking he won't raise taxes no matter what. At other times, he says all options are on the table and parties will have to work together to find a solution. "I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it," Sen. McCain said Wednesday at a town hall meeting outside of Denver. He said Sen. Obama "wants to raise your taxes to pay for bigger government." But that evening, at a fund-raiser in Kansas City, Mo., Sen. McCain said the matter has to be worked out with both parties. "In any negotiation that I might have, when I go in, my position will be that I am opposed to raising taxes," he said. "But we have to work together to save Social Security." That echoed comments to ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday when he said that "everything's on the table," including raising taxes.

TOO FIT TO BE PRESIDENT?
(Amy Chozick, Wall Street Journal)
Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track. "Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough," Sen. Obama said. But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them. The candidate has been criticized by opponents for appearing elitist or out of touch with average Americans. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in July shows Sen. Obama still lags behind Republican John McCain among white men and suburban women who say they can't relate to his background or perceived values. "He's too new ... and he needs to put some meat on his bones," says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. "I won't vote for any beanpole guy," another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board. The last overweight president to be elected was 335-pound William Howard Taft in 1908. As for tall and lanky presidents, "you might have to go back to Abraham Lincoln" in 1860, says presidential historian Stephen Hess. "Most presidents were sort of in the middle."

MCCAIN VP TALK TURNS TO TWO FEMALE CONSERVATIVES
(Joseph Curl and Ralph Z. Hallow, Washington Times)
Sen. John McCain's growing popularity among women is fueling speculation that he will select a female running mate, ripening talk about conservative favorite Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, one of his top economic advisers. Political pundits, election strategists and even some Democrats say putting a dynamic woman on the Republican ballot would tip independents, especially the "security moms" who helped President Bush win re-election in 2004. "If McCain picked a woman, it would certainly get the attention and perhaps votes of some Democrats and a number of independents who supported Hillary Clinton," said Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh...  Although Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are still considered the front-runners for the vice-presidential slot (with a growing hum about former Rep. Rob Portman of Ohio), there is a new buzz that Mr. McCain will make a "transformative" pick outside the mainstream, perhaps even cross party lines to choose Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned independent. While most insiders find that option unlikely, Newt Gingrich warns Mr. McCain not to pick "one more relatively boring normal mainstream Republican white guy."