[sensitiveguy]

A top campaign official for John McCain was forced to issue an apology Monday after, according to a published article, the adviser said a terror attack would be a “big advantage” for McCain’s presidential prospects.

McCain chief political strategist Charlie Black was discussing McCain’s national security credentials with Fortune magazine, and said that McCain’s support grows when public attention turns to disasters like the December assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Black called Bhutto’s death an “unfortunate event,” according to a Fortune piece published Monday. “But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who’s ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us.”

Fortune also quoted Black as saying of a terror attack on U.S. soil: “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him.”

“I deeply regret the comments. They were inappropriate. I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration,” Black said Monday, reading the statement outside a Fresno, Calif., fundraising event for McCain.

A senior McCain campaign official who did not speak for attribution said Black does not remember making the comments Fortune quoted, but he does not dispute them. The official continued, Black’s argument in the interview was that McCain is favored on national security issues and that any day that national security leads the news is a good day for the Arizona senator.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement, calling Black’s comments a “disgrace.”

“Barack Obama welcomes a debate about terrorism with John McCain, who has fully supported the Bush policies that have taken our eye off of Al Qaeda, failed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, and made us less safe.

“The fact that John McCain’s top advisor 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.”