Adviser sorry he said terror attack would help McCain

In a Fortune interview, posted on the magazine's Web site Monday, Black said the Arizona senator demonstrated his fluency in foreign policy and security matters following the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December.

Bhutto's killing was an "unfortunate event," he said, but McCain's "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."

Asked if McCain would stand to benefit from a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Black answered, "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him."

A McCain campaign official said Black, the former chairman of the lobbying firm BKSH & Associates, does not explicitly remember saying the comment, but does not dispute it. According to the official, he was trying to emphasize that McCain is favored on national security issues.

On the day of Bhutto's December assassination, McCain seemed to suggest the calamity could offer him some political benefit.

"I'm the one with the experience, the knowledge and the judgment," he told CNN's Dana Bash. "So perhaps it may serve to enhance those credentials."