Despite the fact that much of the news coverage for the past few weeks on McCain has revolved around his lobbyist-run campaign, especially Co-Chair "Foreclosure Phil" Gramm's lobbying ties to "the wrong side of the ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis," Chris Wallace's "last question" about it caught McCain by surprise Tuesday night, and left him stammering, stuttering and fibbing:

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Wallace: Let me ask you one last question. David Axelrod said you talked in your speech today about changing the way Washington does business, but your campaign is run by two of the biggest lobbyists in Washington. How do you respond to that?

McCain (stuttering): "Uh, I di.., look, uh, the, the, those, they are not lobbyists, but th.. the fact is Americans care about my vision and plan of action for the future,"... blah blah bs, blah ... 'Obama is a liberal' blah...

Wallace didn't press any further (of course) on who this "they" is, but it was a lie in any case clearly worthy of a few Pinocchios. Does the McCain campaign really not have a practiced answer at the ready for this simple a question about its mounting lobbyist problems (if so, I'm nearly certain 'um, um, they are not lobbyists' isn't it) or did McCain just get so comfortable on the Republican News Network he blanked on the script?