Obama concedes point on “dollar bill” remarks controversy

Ok, I think this means we’ve come full circle now:

But Obama also admitted that, despite what Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told reporters, there was a racial dimension to his Missouri remarks in which he said McCain and the Republicans would make an issue of the fact that he doesn’t look like presidents who have been on the dollar bills.

“I don’t think it’s accurate to say that my comments have nothing to do with race,” Obama said. “Here’s what I was saying and I think this should be undisputed: That I don’t come out of central casting, when it comes to presidential races. For a whole range of reasons. I’m young, I’m new to the national scene, my name is Barack Obama, I am African American, I was born in Hawaii, I spent time in Indonesia. I do not have the typical biography of a presidential candidate. What that means is that I’m sort of unfamiliar and people are still trying to get a fix on who I am, where I come from, what my values are and so forth in a way that might not be true if I seemed more familiar.”

Despite the concession, he insists he was not saying/implying that McCain is a racist:

Let me be clear: In no way do I think that John McCain’s campaign was being racist; I think they’re cynical. And I think they want to distract people from talking about the real issues.

Ah yes – we’ve heard that one before, haven’t we?

Hats off to the McCain campaign for digging their heels in on this and not letting it go unanswered.

Related: Ed Morrisey blogs about Obama’s flip flop on offshore drilling.