“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?” Obama said, responding to a reporter who asked the candidate why he hadn’t called on Wesley Clark to apologize for his remarks yesterday. “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 General Clark said something that was inartful about Sen. McCain I don’t think is probably the thing that is keeping Ohioans up at night,” he added.

Obama said he has not spoken to Clark since the retired four star general and Obama surrogate told CBS’ Bob Schieffer that he didn’t think “riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” although Clark has since said he’s spoken to campaign staffers about his statement.

Both the RNC and the McCain campaign have seized Clark’s “inartful” remarks, as Mr. Obama described it, and have sent out a flurry of statements and held conference calls to hammer home that because Obama did not ask Clark to apologize, then he is “either encouraging or tolerating his attacks on John McCain’s military service.”

Obama himself has railed against dirty politics on the campaign trail, but says General Clark’s comments didn’t have “the same intent” as the Swift Boat attacks that haunted John Kerry’s campaign in 2004.