Campaign aides sling accusations of mud

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Chief aides to the two major-party U.S. presidential candidates Sunday pointed fingers at each other for the increasingly angry tone permeating the campaign.

David Axelrod, chief strategist for Democrat Barack Obama said on Fox News Sunday that John McCain and Sarah Palin, as the two atop the Republican ticket, bear some responsibility for the vitriol seen at some of their rallies.

"(When) you stand up and you say someone's been palling around with terrorists, they don't see America the way we see it, you don't really know who he is and so on, and people start yelling kill him, bomb him, off with his head, that is not where we want to take politics in this country," he said.

Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, countered that the Obama campaign started the mudslinging, and the GOP campaign merely responded.

"Obama's campaign commercials themselves call John McCain a liar," Davis said. "John McCain's never used the liar phrase until Barack Obama put it up on air."

Davis also said Obama "should apologize to John McCain directly" for the comments made by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., accusing McCain of fostering "an atmosphere of hate" similar to George Wallace, the late Alabama governor remembered for his racism through much of his career.

"Barack Obama did not address this issue directly -- had his campaign walked out with a half-baked statement that didn't even address the comments by Lewis as it related to John McCain," Davis said.