Or is the war over the Iraq War over? At least for a time, it seems. This morning, after a panel discussion in Jacksonville, Florida, I asked John McCain for a response to claims that his criticism of Mitt Romney on Iraq has been “dishonest.” He quietly — and very briefly — restated his basic position. “Everything I said today is backed up by facts as matter of record.” (In fact, McCain hadn’t discussed the issue at all, which may prompt further calls that he is being dishonest.) And at a midday rally in Orlando, McCain accused Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton of wanting “to wave the white flags of surrender,” but made no mention of Romney’s position. We’re ready to move on, too, after one final point. As this back-and-forth has unfolded between the campaigns and in the media, we have seen claims that Romney has always supported the surge. The most recent example comes from Time magazine’s Michael Scherer, who has been blogging about the issue as it unfolded. (Scherer and Time’s Ana Marie Cox had an interesting exchange about the issue here.) Scherer, pointing to a New York Times story about Romney and Iraq, writes that the Times piece “makes clear that Romney had been unwavering in his stated support for the surge, even as he lacked McCain’s enthusiasm.” But the Times piece doesn’t make that clear. It merely cites unnamed Romney aides making that claim. That’s different. One reason, perhaps, that the Times piece doesn’t show Romney “unwavering” support for the surge is because Romney wavered in his support for the surge. The biggest problem that some national security conservatives have with Romney — not all of them McCain supporters — is that he refused to take a position on the surge at its conception and did so in a pusillanimous manner. As the surge was first being discussed, Romney evaded the question, claiming he was not yet running for national office. It was a silly thing to say. Although Romney had not yet made his formal announcement, he was running hard at the time he dodged the question. (See this piece for details.) Reasonable people can disagree about whether or not Romney advocated secret timetables for withdrawal, but he was hardly “unwavering” in his support for the surge.
