Everyone “wrongs” Philadelphia at some point. It’s partially just a creation of the news media down there, who have been salivating for another swiss cheese moment since 2004.

Watching his waistline – or his poll numbers – Barack Obama played it safe last week by going to Claudio’s and DiBruno’s, and Hillary compared herself to Rocky, forgetting that he lost. I’ll bet neither candidate has a cheesesteak at Geno’s, with its anti-immigrant connotations.

Now John McCain has seemingly fallen into a South Philly political pothole.

Promising to try to woo black voters, McCain told radio interviewer Tavis Smiley, “I know that I’m not going to get a majority of the African-American vote. But I’m going to campaign all over this country. I’m going to go to South Philadelphia, I’m going to go to the Black Belt in Alabama . . .”

If McCain wants to win over black voters, first he’d better know where to find them.

South Philly has changed from a mostly Italian-heritage enclave to one that includes growing numbers of Asians and Hispanics. According to the latest census, while Philadelphia is a majority-minority city, African-Americans are less than a third of the population in South Philadelphia.