Rick Davis made the remarks to editors at The Washington Post, which published them Tuesday.

“This election is not about issues,” Davis said. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”

Davis accused Obama of “misdirection” Wednesday in his attempts to criticize him for the comment.

“One of the points I made is that not only are issues of economics and trade and foreign policy and education and others very important to voters, but it is the composite of all that stuff, how the candidates … feel about those things and also their views on leadership and character and their values that will be the conglomerate of what makes the final decision for most voters,” he said on a conference call.

Obama is expected to use Davis’ Post quote as an example of how the McCain campaign is attacking him as a “celebrity” as a way to distract voters from issues. The campaign could hammer this theme in the coming days, potentially with TV ads.

“We appreciate Senator McCain’s campaign manager finally admitting that his campaign is not in fact about the issues the American people care about, which is exactly the kind of cynical old politics people are ready to change,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in a statement. “Senator Obama will continue to make this election about the big issues.”

This should not be a surprise, with Repubs it is seldom about the issues that face Americans.  The really cool part is that they can convince the American people to vote against their own best interests.  That is an accomplishment that Repubs can be proud of and something for the polisci books to consider.