“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.

Asked about top Obama adviser David Axelrod’s insinuation that her Iraq vote in 2002 may have had something to do with Benazir Bhutto’s assassination by distracting attention from the fight against al Qaeda, Hillary Clinton declined to respond — telling CNN, “I really regret that anybody would try to politicize this tragedy.”

But her surrogates aren’t biting their tongues. In a written statement,  former Supreme Allied Commander and ex-presidential candidate Wesley Clark says “This is a time for leadership, not politics. Senator Obama’s campaign seems to believe that Senator Clinton’s actions led to the tragic events in Pakistan. This is an incredible and insulting charge. It politicizes a tragic event of enormous strategic consequence to the United States and the world, and it has no place in this campaign.”

The Clinton campaign is walking a fine line in dealing with the Bhutto assassination; it’s widely seen as politically helpful, since it reminds caucus goers of her foreign policy experience and strength against extremists. But she has to be careful not be seen as exploiting Bhutto’s death and her personal relationship with the former PM by playing her hand too aggressively.

Axelrod’s comments allow her to accuse Obama of being exploitative, and still keep the story (and her foreign policy credentials) in the news for another day.