Barack Obama accused the McCain campaign of “lies” and “Swift boat” politics Wednesday, after nearly a day of claims his ‘lipstick on a pig’ comment was a sexist attack leveled at Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin.

“Spare me the phony outrage. Spare me the phony knee talk about change,” Obama said at the start of an education event in Virginia. “We have real problems in this country right now. The American people are looking to us for answers, not distractions, not diversions, not manipulations. They want real answers to the real problems we are facing.

“I don’t care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics,” he also said. “Enough is enough.”

Obama’s heated response came after the McCain campaign said the Illinois senator owes Palin an apology for invoking an old adage on the campaign trail Tuesday: “That’s not change,” Obama said, saying John McCain’s policy views were similar to President Bush’s. “That’s just calling something the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

McCain’s campaign said Obama’s remarks were offensive and a slap at Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin — despite the fact that the Arizona senator himself used the phrase last year to describe a policy proposal of Hillary Clinton’s.

Within minutes, the McCain campaign announced a conference call focused on the remark, which they said was a deliberate reference to Palin’s line: “You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”