HUDSON, Wis. (AP) – Every presidential campaign has its hitches. For John McCain, they felt more like full-blown lurches this week, with nearly every step forward quickly offset by a misstatement or wisecrack that seemed to blow his message off course.

It was the week McCain hoped to show off his newly focused, smoother-running operation after he rearranged his campaign hierarchy and acknowledged errors in the staging of events and other matters.

Setbacks

But a joke about U.S. cigarettes killing Iranians, criticism of the Social Security program and word that one of his top economic advisers had called the country “a nation of whiners” suffering a “mental recession” undermined the Arizona senator’s effort.

Democrat Barack Obama has had his own stumbles recently, but McCain’s journey through the key election states of Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin was bumpy.

Looking ahead

McCain said he is not worried.

“I’m very aware that, from time to time, some words of mine will be taken out of context,” he told reporters Friday. “I’m not going to change the way our campaign is.”

Still, the week’s events seemed likely to sustain the worries of some Republicans who cringed when McCain gave a major speech in June before a garishly green background, and who scratched their heads during his recent visit to Mexico and Colombia, home to few U.S. voters.

Perhaps McCain’s trickiest problem is that his favorite campaign format – freewheeling town halls where unscreened attendees can ask him anything – make it almost impossible for him to focus on one or two key themes.

McCain says presidential contenders should routinely subject themselves to the toughest questioning that reporters and voters can offer.

“I’m very happy,” he told reporters Friday. He said town hall participants never ask about his campaign shake-ups.”I’m not going to change, because I think I made a lot of progress today.”