From the Wire

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Every presidential campaign has its hitches.For John McCain, they felt more like full-blown lurches this week,with nearly every step forward quickly offset by a misstatement orwisecrack that seemed to blow his message off course.
It was the week McCain hoped to show off his newly focused,smoother-running operation after he rearranged his campaignhierarchy and acknowledged errors in the staging of events andother matters.
But a joke about U.S. cigarettes killing Iranians, criticism of theSocial Security program and word that one of his top economicadvisers had called the country "a nation of whiners" suffering a"mental recession" undermined the Arizona senator's effort.
Democrat Barack Obama has had his own stumbles recently, butMcCain's journey through the key election states of Colorado,Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin was bumpy.
McCain said he is not worried.
"I'm very aware that, from time to time, some words of mine will betaken out of context," he told reporters Friday. "I'm not going tochange the way our campaign is."
He said the people who attended his town hall meeting earlier thatday in Hudson, Wis., "know my plan for the future of America. Therewas not a question about tobacco to Iran."
Still, the week's events seemed likely to sustain the worries ofsome Republicans who cringed when McCain gave a major speech inJune before a garishly green background, and who scratched theirheads during his recent visit to Mexico and Colombia, home to fewU.S. voters.
A brief recap of McCain's week:
_Monday: At an otherwise well-received town hall event in Denver,McCain described the Social Security system as it currentlyoperates as "an absolute disgrace" and said "it's got to be fixed."Liberal groups seized on the comment. McCain later said thedisgrace is that young workers will not benefit from the program iflong-term financing problems are not addressed. He vowed to workwith Democrats and Republicans to do so.
_Tuesday: After ordering a cheesesteak sandwich at a popularPittsburgh hangout, McCain invited reporters' questions. Askedabout surprisingly large shipments of cigarettes to Iran, whereU.S. exports are discouraged, McCain quipped: "Maybe that's a wayof killing them." The joke seemed less funny a day later, when hesomberly criticized Iran's test-firing of missiles. Bloggers, cablenews shows and others replayed the sound bite repeatedly.
_Thursday: In a Detroit suburb, McCain fielded questions from apartly skeptical audience of autoworkers. Things got worse withnews of the "nation of whiners" comment by former Sen. Phil Gramm,a top economic adviser to McCain. McCain, who spent the weekhighlighting the public's concern about the economy, quickly triedto distance himself from his former colleague and longtime friend."Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me," McCain said.
_Friday: The calmest day of McCain's week nonetheless included oneof those odd moments that cause some supporters to wonder about hispolitical dexterity. A woman at the Hudson forum denounced theDemocratic Party and asked McCain if he would "hammer away at theirsocialist, Marxist philosophy." His "yes" response drew wildapplause.
McCain later hailed the importance of bipartisanship, and evenpraised Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts liberal. Still,his breezy acceptance of the woman's description seemed at oddswith his bid to woo Democrats dubious about Obama and resentful ofHillary Rodham Clinton's defeat.
Perhaps McCain's trickiest problem is that his favorite campaignformat _ freewheeling town halls where unscreened attendees can askhim anything _ make it almost impossible for him to focus on one ortwo key themes.
Worse, they allow anti-McCain activists to challenge or evencriticize him before TV cameras, as happened several times lastweek.
McCain says presidential contenders should routinely subjectthemselves to the toughest questioning that reporters and voterscan offer.
"I'm very happy," he told reporters Friday. He said town hallparticipants never ask about his campaign shake-ups or the kinds ofquips and gaffes that preoccupy cable news. "Their questions arehow they can have a better future, educate their kids, keep theirjobs, have health care."
"I'm not going to change, because I think I made a lot of progresstoday," McCain said after the Wisconsin forum.