McCain has built his entire political career on playing the victim. First as a Prisoner of War, then as an honest man who somehow got caught up in the middle of the Keating affair, then as the only Senator dedicated to battling pork against his party. It is a constant theme, and one that has worked for him every time.

McCain is understandably worried that the GOP base will fail to turn out for him. So his strategy is to claim to be the victim of unfair charges of racism. The only problem being how to get Obama to accuse him of racism without the press also accusing him.

Like every other post-segregation politician playing the race card, McCain is using code. Some of the code is obvious, but other parts are not:

The Spears/Hilton 'celebrity' ad juxtaposes two notoriously promiscuous white women with Obama to play to an old Klu Klu Klan claim that black men just want to rape white women. Lieberman's comment was carefully chosen: 'just relax and enjoy it': the sterotypical words of a rapist to his victim.

The point here is not to play to the remaining hundred or so Klansmen, its to bait the Obama camp into making a response so that McCain can play the victim. When Obama refused to take the bait, they pretended that he had and McCain chanted 'race-card, race-card, race-card'.

The followup to the 'rape' ad is the 'Moses' ad. This really makes no sense as a campaign ad. The main message seems to be that McCain couldn't find Obama doing very much that is embarassing. Even the clip where Obama is talking about a shining shaft of light, he is clearly being ironic - the only other person in shot is laughing.

There are only three strong images in the spot - Obama, the desk in the White House and a very very white Charlton Heston playing Moses. The subliminal semiotic is 'black man, not a leader' followed by a very very white man who is.