Barack Obama is warning supporters that the general election fight between him and John McCain may get ugly, but the Illinois senator is vowing not to back down.
"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, according to pool reports.
"We don't have a choice but to win," Obama said, joking that he has heard "folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles games."
Obama again said that the GOP will make try to make him look "scary" to voters.
Obama pledging to swing back at the GOP drew much applause from the crowd.
Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said Obama's rhetoric abandons Obama's campaign themes of hope and change.
"In the last 24 hours, he’s completely abandoned his campaign’s call for ‘new politics’, equating the election to a ‘brawl’ and promising to ‘bring a gun,’" Conant said.
People need to remember - Obama is supposedly the candidate for "hope" and "change". Yet - advocating violence is not necessarily the type of "hope" or "change" our country needs.
You have to wonder - if he is just plagarizing from the movie "The Untouchables"? “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!”