John McCain is notoriously hard to keep on message and stick to the script. If he doesn’t want to talk about social issues, he isn’t going to do it. If he doesn’t want to wade into Reverend Wright he won’t touch it. But when he tracks the message of the day and moves the story along you know it is big. So what did McCain talk about today? James Johnson, of course.

The McCain campaign likely views this issue as political manna — a perfect distraction from Barack Obama’s opening economic tour and a helpful talking point in McCain’s effort to convince voters that the New Politics is just like the Old Politics. As for the Obama camp, they are attempting to convince the media the issue is “overblown and irrelevant.” Well, it seems once you wade into the lobbyist gotcha game you can’t very well call foul.