BUT I THOUGHT JOHN McCAIN HAD NO SAY IN HIS OWN CAMPAIGN!

Would the many, many people who think John McCain is a prisoner of his campaign staff please explain how this can be true if he's also (as Politico says today) defying campaign staffers by refusing to bring up Reverend Wright?

If "the real McCain" has been forced to be an attack dog against his will, how come "the real McCain" is able to refuse to be an attack dog on the subject of Wright?

As I've said before, I think McCain is bringing up Wright by continually working with the press to generate stories about how he's not bring up Wright (such as the Politico story linked above). I don't understand this strategy -- does McCain fear stories about preachers linked to McCain and Palin? does he believe that a white Republican needs to use an intermediary if he wants to make an attack that could seem racist? -- but if you disagree with my read on the situation and take McCain's seeming high-mindedness on Wright at face value, you can't turn around and argue that he's a helpless victim otherwise. If he sometimes says no to his handlers, you can't argue that in other situations he's simply forced to do what they say.