Barack Obama may have underestimated the American public when he tried to manipulate them with race-baiting comments about his skin color.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the nation’s voters say they’ve seen news coverage of the McCain campaign commercial that includes images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and suggests that Barack Obama is a celebrity just like them. Of those, just 22% say the ad was racist while 63% say it was not.

However, Obama’s comment that his Republican opponent will try to scare people because Obama does not look like all the other presidents on dollar bills was seen as racist by 53%. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree.

Both campaigns expressed a desire to move beyond the recent flap. On Saturday Obama backed off the racism charge and accused McCain’s campaign of cynicism instead. He also rejected McCain’s charge that the Democrat himself had brought race into the campaign with his dollar bill comment.

(Hat tip: JammieWearingFool.)