McCain's campaign was declared dead by all accounts before the primaries had even started. So yeah, he was totally getting an unfair leg-up from the media. *facepalms*
Barack Obama was the one who avoided fair scrutiny on mainstream media. That is, of course, until the issues about his church came to light, predominantly thanks to Fox. Other, more Left-leaning, networks held off until it became clear that the talking points just weren't going to go away.
From that point on, the shitstorm started and Obama was finally afforded the scrutiny he needed. I say that he needed it because if people don't know who he is and what he stands for, they're not in a position to make an informed decision on whether or not he is a suitable candidate. So in a roundabout way, he might end up wanting to thank Reverend Wright and company for getting that ball rolling.
As for the silly gaffes? Some of them were courtesy of old quotes being exploited (such as that "I need to be educated on the economy" soundbite from 3 years ago), and others were pure semantics. In the name of equality, perhaps it would be good to expose some Obama fuck-ups too, so here goes:
Obama handles the Reverend Wright affair like a champ
"If I had heard any of these [controversial Reverend Wright] statements, I probably would have walked out... they were not statements that I heard when I was in church."
- Barack Obama
Obama: Gaffe Machine