Barack Obama's top strategist said Friday that John McCain's campaign manufactured a racial debate when it accused Obama of "playing the race card" the day before.

Strategist David Axelrod defended the Illinois senator, saying he was just being "self-mocking" when he told a Missouri crowd that Republicans would try to scare voters by saying he doesn't look like "all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

"Nobody reported it as a racial comment. ... The only time this became an issue was when (McCain campaign manager) Rick Davis and their campaign decided to kick it up and make it a racial issue," Axelrod said on NBC's "Today."

Davis, appearing on the same show, said "we were perfectly within our rights to protect our candidate" from such attacks. He had previously said in a statement that Obama was playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck" with his Missouri comments.

The dueling aides on Friday continued a debate that threatens to take the campaign in a markedly negative direction. The comments came amid escalating attacks between the candidates, with McCain portraying Obama as a self-involved diva and Obama increasingly linking McCain to President Bush.

The injection of race led to recriminations from both sides.

"We are not going to let anybody paint John McCain, who has fought his entire life for equal rights for everyone, to be able to be painted as racist," Davis said Friday. "We've seen this happen before and we're not going to let it happen to us."

That comment might have been a reference to racially charged moments during the Democratic primary.

Bill Clinton, for one, took heat from Obama supporters for calling Obama's campaign a "fairy tale" and comparing his candidacy to Jesse Jackson's. Clinton at one point claimed Obama's team was playing the race card on him, drawing more ire from Obama supporters.

Axelrod said in his interview Friday that Obama "in no way" intended his comments in Missouri to be interpreted as racial.

"He does this in a self-mocking way: 'Look, I know I'm not from central casting when it comes to presidents of the United States. I am new. I am relatively young, I haven't spent my life in Washington. And yes, I am African American, and that will be some fodder,'" he said.

But Obama was talking about Republican scare tactics at the time. And he has made the claim before.

At a June fundraiser in Florida, he said: "We know what kind of campaign they're going to run. ... They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black? He's got a feisty wife."

McCain said Thursday he was "very disappointed" and that "race will not have any role in my campaign, nor is there any place for it."

FOX News' Mosheh Oinounou contributed to this report.