McCain Campaign Returns To Solid Ground

In the post below, I raised the question of whether or not the McCain campaign made a mistake by sending out an attack article on Obama to reporters this morning. I published the post before a McCain aide was able to get back to me to answer that question. (Such are the perils of the blog-cycle. My old newspaper editors would be horrified by my haste. My apologies.)

But an aide did get back to me. The campaign now says the article was sent out in error. "It was an error," the aide writes in an email. "Obviously what's important here is what Sen. McCain has said on it."

ALSO: According to TIME's own "The Page," McCain's senior adviser Charlie Black told MSNBC's Morning Joe that he would give Obama a full pass on the Wright rhetoric, echoing McCain's view that candidates should not be held responsible for what their supporters and endorsers say. (To which I would add: Another attempt to rein in the epidemic of second-degree scandals.)