A point by point examination of what McCain said about Romney's comments on Iraq and timetables and what Romney actually said:
McCain: “Last April, Governor Romney said he supported ‘timetables’ for withdrawing our troops from Iraq and keeping them secret."
Romney responding to this question, "Do you believe that there should be a timetable in withdrawing the troops?": "Well, there's no question but that -- the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn't be for public pronouncement."
I'd say: Accurate.
McCain: "Governor Romney also said that there wouldn’t be any real difference on Iraq policy between the Republican nominee and Senator Clinton during the general election."
Romney: "Come the fall of '08, for all of Hillary's rhetoric, she's not going to be demanding a dramatically different course in Iraq than the Republican nominee will."
I'd say: Misleading.
McCain: "I understand if Governor Romney has changed his mind given the obvious success of the surge. But the fact is, like on so many other issues, Governor Romney has hedged, equivocated, ducked, and reversed himself."
Romney initially on the surge: "I'm not going to weigh in. I'm still a governor. I'm not running for national office at this stage. I'm not going to weigh in on specific tactics about whether we should go from 140,000 to 170,000. That's something I expect the President to decide over the next couple of weeks and announce that to the nation. I want to hear what he has to say."
Romney later on the surge: "I don't give that a high probability, I give it a reasonable probability."
I'd say: Accurate.
McCain: "The only people who are owed an apology are the men and women fighting for our country in Iraq, who have a right to expect their leaders to stand by them and their mission not just when it is easy, but when it matters most — when it is hard."
I'd say: Matter of opinion.
McCain's claims were for the most part accurate, but obviously misleading on the claim that Romney's plan didn't differ from Hillary's or the Democrats... he took that statement out of context. On the other issues it was pretty fair and/or matters of opinion.
Romney should respond that the timetables he suggested would have been greatly different than those proposed by Democrats that did not keep them secret nor did they necessarily rely on milestones. Instead he's arguing that he never supported a specific date... something McCain didn't suggest. It just makes Romney look like he can't address the initial claim to me or wants to avoid it. Romney did the same thing when Huckabee brought up the timetable issue in the debates. He denied it, but only in as much as it didn't involve a specific date for withdrawal.
He has never denied, because he can't, that he supported timetables. He always addresses a strawman issue of whether it was public/secret or a specific date(s) were involved.
Full article with full references and links/citations: here.
