A lot of liberals, including me, have been pointing out that John McCain is not the paragon of political courage he is often portrayed to be. At the same time, it's true that he does have a lot of very decent instincts. One of those was on display earlier today, when he repudiated a talk-show named Bill Cunningham who introduced him by repeatedly calling his opponent "Barack Hussein Obama."
Speaking afterward, McCain promised, "I never met Mr. Cunningham, but I will make sure nothing like that ever happens again." I had expected that the use of Obama's middle name would be a staple of Republican rhetoric between now and November. McCain has defined it as out-of-bounds. I think he deserves credit for that.
--Jonathan Chait