Christine O'Donnell Regrets 'I'm Not a Witch' Ad

Wish I hadn't said that.

That's the sentiment Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell expressed Thursday on national TV when she said a TV campaign ad in which she declared, "I'm not a witch," probably backfired and focused more attention on her controversial comments a decade ago.

"I haven't publicly stated this, and I don't know if I'll get in trouble for saying that, but our intention was to kill it and that's not what happened," she said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

O'Donnell, a conservative Republican who has been endorsed by Sarah Palin, had aired the ad in a bid to tamp down controversy over her remarks in 1999 on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show that she "dabbled" in witchcraft as a teenager. "I never joined a coven," she said back then.

In banter at the close of her ABC appearance, O'Donnell was asked what costume she would wear for Halloween: "I certainly am not going to be a witch," she answered. Maybe Dorothy, the young heroine who battled the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz."

"Kill the witch," she said with a laugh.

In the interview aired Thursday, O'Donnell defended statements she made about the First Amendment and the separation of church and state in a debate earlier this week with her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons. The actual words -- separation of church and state -- do not appear in the Constitution, she said.