Speaking at a high school in Norfolk, Obama took a few moments to address what he calls "the made-up controversy" of the day, Amie Parnes reports.Obama said the McCain campaign moved to "seize an innocent remark and take it out of context because they knew it's catnip for the news media."
"See, it would be funny, but the news media decided that would be the lead story yesterday. This happens every election cycle. Every four years, this is what we do. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about...Enough!" he said.
Obama called the attacks "lies, outrage and swift boat politics."
"These are serious times and they call for a serious debate...spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change," he said.
UPDATE: McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responds: "Barack Obama can't campaign with schoolyard insults and then try to claim outrage at the tone of the campaign. His talk of new politics is as empty as his campaign trail promises, and his record of bucking his party and reaching across the aisle simply doesn't exist."