From The Page:
The Senator says his call Monday for supporters to avoid denigrating military service was not a reference to Wesley Clark’s comment about McCain. "I think in at least one publication it was reported that my comments yesterday about Senator McCain were in a response to General Clark. I think my staff will confirm that was in a draft of that speech that I had written two months ago."
Also says Clark does not owe McCain an apology...McCain campaign accuses Obama of repudiating his own repudiation, and says, "Apparently Barack Obama now thinks that smear attacks on John McCain’s military service are fair game."
http://thepage.time.com/...
Per The Page: "Obama: Clark does not need to apologize to Mccain." More on not apologizing from 1st read (link at the end of this diary), hat tip Beachmom--
He did not answer the first part of the question directly and later Obama, who said he had not spoken with Clark, seemed to bristle when asked why he had not talked with him and whether he felt the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO owed McCain an apology, suggesting voters had more pressing matters on their minds.
"I guess my question is why, given all the vast numbers of things that we've got to work on, that that would be a top priority of mine?" he said.
Now that's the Barack Obama I know and love!
My loose paraphrase of the video above: Obama rejects the swiftboat analogy and posits that Mccain is an asshat for crying about the General's remarks. Then he gives his boilerplate "Senator Mccain is heroic blah blah."
I think I'll buy that second bumper sticker now. Someone tell Markos to drop his 2300 check in the mail :-)
Update: FYI, here's the original diary on this topic: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Another update: (hat tip beachmom) The following is an additional Obama quote via MSNBC's First Read-
"I guess my question is why, given all the vast numbers of things that we've got to work on, that that would be a top priority of mine?" he said. "I think that, you know, right now we're here to talk about how we can make sure that kids in Zanesville and across Ohio get the kind of support that they need and communities that are impoverished can start to rebuild. I'm happy to have all sorts of conversations about how we deal with Iraq and what happens with Iran, but the fact that somebody on a cable show or on a news show like Gen. Clark said something that was inartful about Sen. McCain I don’t think is probably the thing that is keeping Ohioans up at night."
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/...
Video with the above quote below