Suddenly John McCain has decided it’s OK to criticize Barack Obama for his association with Jeremiah Wright. It’s no longer out of touch with reality, it’s not racist, and it’s not the kind of sleazy politics that Ronald Reagan would be ashamed of.

Why the change of heart? Because Barack Obama said it was a “legitimate issue:” The Wright Stuff: McCain goes after Wright.

Meanwhile, Rev. Wright gave a very pugnacious speech to the National Press Club this morning and said, among other things, “This is an attack on the black church.” Clearly, he was emboldened by that wildly enthusiastic reception he got from the NAACP.

And he’s being accompanied by bodyguards from the Nation of Islam.

Answering his first question, Wright first chided the questioner for not having heard the whole sermon, and then defended comments he made shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks that the United States had brought terrorism onto itself.

“If you heard the whole sermon, first of all, you heard that I was quoting the ambassador from Iraq. … But Number Two, to quote the Bible: ‘Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever you sow, that you shall’ –” he paused, and then some members of the audience responded, “Reap.”

He continued: “Jesus said do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles.”