Obama carefully avoiding racial politics

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama is largely avoiding talking about race because it's not a decisive issue in the campaign, aides say.

As some supporters of Republican opponent Sen. John McCain of Arizona make veiled references to Obama's race and emphasize his middle name "Hussein," the U.S. senator from Illinois is largely letting surrogates denounce racially motivated attacks on him, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

This weekend, it was U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who said GOP efforts to tie Obama to a black 1960s radical and paint him as friendly with terrorists were inciting possible violence toward his black and minority supporters. Obama's campaign issued a mild rebuke to Lewis.

His campaign staffers say Obama not wading into the racial issues because he doesn't believe there are enough racially motivated voters to make a real difference while the economy is plunging.

"It's not the thing I lie awake worrying about," David Axelrod told the Post. "If we don't win this election, I don't think it's going to be because of race. We spend a lot of time talking about a lot of things. That's not one we spend a lot of time talking about."