There's just something about South Carolina that makes John McCain go a little nuts. Stumping in his most favoritest state this weekend, Senator Straight-Talk responded to a question about his faith--long thought to be Episcopalian--by insisting that he is, in fact, a Baptist and has belonged to a Baptist congregation in Arizona for ages. McCain has indeed attended the North Phoenix Baptist Church--an affiliate of the conservative Southern Baptist denomination, no less--for 15 years now. But just three months ago, a piece about the senator's faith in McClatchy newspapers specifically noted that "McCain still calls himself an Episcopalian" and featured the candidate's explaining why, unlike his wife and two of his kids, he had never been Baptized into his current church: "I didn't find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs." Now, maybe the reporter did not actually ask McCain if he "still calls himself an Episcopalian"--though that would seem an odd oversight in an interview about the senator's faith and, more specifically, his technical relationship to his long-time church home. Still, let's give McCain the benefit of the doubt and assume that the myriad references to his Episcopalianism in recent years were incorrect--that he has, in fact, long considered himself a Baptist at heart. (Maybe even a Southern Baptist!) Why then the compulsion to correct the record now, on the trail in the hyper-conservative, exceedingly Baptist state of South Carolina, where the man's every move is being scrutinized because of all that unpleasantness in 2000? McCain had to know that he would be slapped for once again sucking up to a base that can't stand him. And sure enough his remarks are already provoking catty commentary around the web--not to mention he's the lead item in today's wing-nut dispatch from GOPUSA). Admittedly, evangelicals love a good conversion story. But I'll be surprised if McCain's newly professed Baptism doesn't garner him far more ridicule than support. --Michelle Cottle