McCain campaign suspends staffer for race video

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican John McCain's presidential campaign on Thursday suspended a staffer for sending a racially charged video involving Democrat Barack Obama and his controversial preacher.

The campaign said Soren Dayton was disciplined after it was learned that he had been sending out the video, which the Internet site Politico.com said used the controversial words of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to portray Obama as unpatriotic.

"We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy. He has been reprimanded by campaign leadership and suspended from the campaign," said McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

Dayton had no role in the McCain communications office and was described as a low-level staffer who sent out the video via a device used for online social networking.

Obama, who would be America's first black president, was forced to distance himself from Wright, who has expressed anger over what he called racist America, charged that the September 11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy and claimed the U.S. government was the source of the AIDS virus.

Wright was Obama's pastor in Chicago for two decades. He recently retired.

McCain has repeatedly said he would run a respectful campaign against either Obama or New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and that the public is tired of negative campaigning.

"A lot of the stuff you don't like you won't see in this campaign," he said at a campaign event last week.

Politico.com said the video Dayton sent included images of Malcolm X, black Olympians raising their hands in the black power salute and the rap song "Fight the Power."

(Reporting by Steve Holland, editing by Alan Elsner)