NOT FIT FOR DOWD TO PRINT

This isn't a particularly significant incident -- but under different circumstances, it might have become one:



As noted in the clip, an interview with John McCain in St. Louis almost didn't take place because reporters clashed with senior members of McCain's campaign staff over whether the campaign would have approval of camera angles -- including, bizarrely, the angles for shots of the reporters.

There's more, including more video of the confrontation, at the Huffington Post.

The reporters say that no candidate gets this kind of control over camera angles. The campaign staffers seem surprised to hear that.

I'm no McCain fan, but I don't think it's horrible and deceitful of them to try to control the angles, especially given the damage cancer has done to one side of McCain's face.

But imagine how many columns Maureen Dowd would squeeze out of this incident if this were Barack Obama's staff demanding control. Imagine how Mike Barnicle would snicker about it. You'd never hear the end of it.

But it's McCain. We all "know" he's unpretentious and unassuming, just as we "know" Obama is egotistical and self-regarding. So when McCain's staff does this, it doesn't count.