By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer

Oct. 14, 2008 – Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has toned down his rhetoric, even going so far as to tell supporters, Obama is “a decent man,”  and their is no reason to “fear” him. 

What happened?

It looks like the question McCain had been asking has been answered: “Who is Barack Obama?” The answer: Obama is the candidate who has taken the lead by as much as 10 percent in some polls and either passed or tied him in some key swing states.

So on Saturday, in Davenport, Iowa, McCain soften his tone and his references to Obama’s association with the former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and moved on to the discussion of the economy and his ability to lead.

Telling his supporters they should consider his experience in government and readiness to lead American troops, he asked his supporters, “In short: Who’s ready to lead?”

It’s a welcomed change from the inflammatory comments that plagued McCain-Palin rallies last week.  It’s unfortunate it took criticism from the media, voters and one Black lawmaker, Georgia Rep. John Lewis (D).

Lewis, a civil rights activist who marched with Civil Rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King, III, released a statement Saturday expressing his discontent with the McCain-Palin campaign.

“As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign,” he wrote.

“What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history.  Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse,” he said.

Lewis compared their actions to the 1960s governor of Georgia, George Wallace, a known segregationist.  “George Wallace never threw a bomb.  He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.”

Lewis said an “atmosphere of hate” led to the death of four little girls who were killed one Sunday morning in 1963 when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham, Ala.

“As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all,” Lewis said.

 “They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy.  We can do better,” he went on say.

While McCain and Palin make be taking a break, their surrogates aren’t.  Former Sen. Lindsay Graham told Bill Schaefer on Face the Nation on Sunday, “I think the [Obama]  campaign hit an all-time low, from my point of view, when you have a statement issued by John Lewis from Georgia saying that Sen. McCain and Sarah Palin are conducting themselves in a way like George Wallace; inspiring hatred, is an absolute offense to people like me who are close friends of John McCain, to all of his supporters, and we’re not going to be intimidated by this playing the race card simply because Sen. Obama’s record has been attacked in a very fair way.”

Lindsay, and anybody who agrees with him, just don’t get it.