Barack Obama was accused yesterday of exploiting the issue of race as his White House battle against John McCain turned into an exchange of televised attacks in which he was portrayed as a vapid celebrity.

Mr Obama, seeking to become America’s first black president, was fighting back against a new attack advertisement by his Republican rival suggesting that the Democrat was a vapid celebrity comparable to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

The advertisement, aired in 11 battleground states, reflects the belief inside the McCain campaign that they have finally found an effective line of attack against Mr Obama — that he is an arrogant, out-of-touch elitist who is more interested in public adulation than the concerns of voters.

The advertisement opens with images of Mr Obama speaking to a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin last week, interspersed with footage of Spears and Hilton, widely considered two of America’s most vacuous and selfobsessed public figures. An announcer intones: “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead?”

In a memo after the commercial, Rick Davis, Mr McCain’s campaign manager, went after Mr Obama’s dietary fastidiousness, writing: “Only celebrities like Barack Obama . . . demand bottles of an organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea”.

Mr Obama immediately hit back. Speaking yesterday at a rally in Iowa, Mr Obama said: “I do have to ask my opponent — is that the best you can come up with? Is that what is worthy of the American people?” Mr McCain insisted last night that he was proud of the commercial.

Earlier Mr Obama told a crowd in Missouri that Mr McCain and the Republicans were trying to scare voters by saying: “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.” Referring to the dollar bills remark, Mr Davis, in a statement from Mr McCain’s Virginia headquarters, said: “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

The Obama team used sensitivities over race to great effect during his primary battle against Hillary Clinton. Robert Gibbs, his chief spokesman, flatly denied the charge.

Mr McCain’s celebrity advertisement uses a tactic pulled straight from the political handbook of Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush’s two White House victories. He was a master of defining an opponent negatively, early, and of turning their strengths against them.

It is no coincidence that Mr McCain’s new chief strategist is Steve Schmidt, a Rove protégé, who headed the Bush re-election war room in 2004 and masterminded the attacks against John Kerry which painted him as an effete flip-flopper. He is now seeking to portray Mr Obama as presumptuous and hubristic. It comes as new polls show Mr Obama and Mr McCain in a statistical tie in Ohio and Florida, two critical battleground states.

Republican strategists were divided over the tactic, amid a new survey showing that a third of Mr McCain’s advertisements are negative. Within hours the Obama campaign had released its own response, entitled Low Road, accusing Mr McCain, 71, of playing the “politics of the past” and “old politics” — a none too subtle reference to his age.

Many Republicans fear that Mr McCain will alienate swing voters and independents, who will probably decide the election, by coming across as cranky and mean-spirited. John Weaver, a former McCain aide, said that the advertisement was childish. He added: “He can inspire the country to greatness. This tomfoolery needs to stop.” Yet going negative on an opponent has often worked, as Mr Kerry will attest. Michael Dukakis saw a 17-point lead evaporate in 1988 by being defined as a chinless, softon-crime liberal by Lee Atwater, one of the first President Bush’s strategists.

There are also signs that the attacks are gaining traction. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, said: “Obama has to be careful. Americans punish hubris — ask President Hillary Clinton.”

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