"Oh, we can't control her. She's just the vice-presidential candidate."

"McCain officials told Politico that the new offensive is likely to focus on [Tony] Rezko and [Bill] Ayers. The officials said the campaign will not bring up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, because McCain has forbade them from using that as a weapon."

—Mike Allen, Politico, Oct. 6, 2008

"To tell you the truth, Bill, I don't know why that association [with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright] isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that—with, I don't know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn't get up and leave—to me, that does say something about character."

—Sarah Palin to Bill Kristol in the New York Times, Oct. 6, 2008