Developments

Racially charged comments that the Rev. Michael Pfleger made last week mocking Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton -- as a guest at Obama's Chicago church, no less -- triggered a quick response from Obama, who wants nothing to do with a racial firestorm like the one generated by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Obama made it clear he wasn't happy with the comments -- in which Pfleger, who is white, pretended he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show" -- and said he was "deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric. ..."

Pfleger, too, issued an apology, saying he was sorry if his comments offended anyone.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago criticized Pfleger for making political comments and a "personal attack" on Clinton. George said he secured a promise from Pfleger that he will stop commenting on the campaign.

Republican John McCain's estimate of U.S. troop levels in Iraq touched off squabbling with Democrat Barack Obama in the latest turn in their escalating disagreement over the war.

McCain said Thursday: "We have drawn down to pre-surge levels."

Obama said: "That's not true and anyone running for commander-in-chief should know better."

The McCain campaign blamed a parsing of semantics. But McCain insisted he didn't misspeak.

Obama responded: "Just like George Bush, when he was presented with the truth, he just dug in and refused to admit his mistake."

McCain then tried to turn the tables, saying Obama thought that the troop increase would exacerbate violence. U.S. commanders have credited it with helping curb violence. "He has no fundamental understanding of the entire situation that warranted the surge," McCain said.