US:JOHN McCAIN has rebuked a top aide who said another terrorist attack on the United States would be a "big advantage" for the Republican presidential candidate as Barack Obama's campaign condemned the remarks as "a complete disgrace".
Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr McCain, told Fortune magazine that last December's assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto helped the Republican's campaign and that another terrorist attack "certainly would be a big advantage to him".
Mr Black said later that he regretted the remark and Mr McCain said he did not know why his aide had made the comments.
"It's not true. I've worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear," Mr McCain said.
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr Obama, said the remarks exposed the cynicism at the heart of the Republican's anti-terrorism rhetoric and highlighted the difference between the two candidates.
"The fact that John McCain's top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a 'big advantage' for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change. Barack Obama will turn the page on these failed policies and this cynical and divisive brand of politics, so that we can unite this nation around a common purpose to finish the fight against al-Qaeda," he said.
Evangelical Christian leader James Dobson yesterday accused Mr Obama of distorting the Bible and offering a "fruitcake" interpretation of the US constitution in support of his political positions.
Mr Dobson, who heads the conservative pressure group Focus on the Family, took aim at the Democratic candidate during a radio address, criticising a speech on religion and politics Mr Obama made two years ago.
In the speech, the Democrat asked which Biblical passages should guide public policy - books like Leviticus, which Mr Obama said suggests slavery is permissible but eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own defence department would survive its application". Accusing Mr Obama of "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter", Mr Dobson said the Democrat was falsely equating antiquated Old Testament dietary guidelines with Christ's words in the New Testament.
"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Mr Dobson said.
The evangelical leader was scathing about Mr Obama's suggestion that Christians should frame arguments about issues such as abortion in language that was accessible to everyone.
"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" he asked.
"What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."
Former president Bill Clinton said yesterday he would do all he could to ensure that the Illinois senator wins November's election.
In his first statement of support for Mr Obama since Hillary Clinton withdrew from the race, the former president said through a spokesman that he was "committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States".
Mr Obama will meet some of Mrs Clinton's top donors in Washington tomorrow and the former rivals will campaign together in New Hampshire on Friday.