I know you’ll be surprised, but what McCain’s charging Mitt supported isn’t actually what Mitt supported. McCain’s charge:

Opening a new line of criticism in Ft. Myers as the two candidates campaigned along the state’s southwest coast, McCain told reporters about Iraq: “If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher.”

Minutes earlier, he took a slap at Romney without naming him during a question-and-answer session with Floridians, saying: “Now, one of my opponents wanted to set a date for withdrawal that would have meant disaster.”

Gramps, that’s not what Mitt said. Here’s the video McCain is referencing.

The newscaster asks Romney if he thinks there needs to be a timetable for withdrawal. Mitt clarifies his position, saying he wants Maliki and Bush to get together and set milestones and timetables. Those would not be publicly known, and Mitt says nothing about withdrawing if those aren’t met in the originally specified time. Never does he say he wanted to set a specific date for withdrawal.

As a matter of fact, Allah links to this video of Mitt back in June saying that withdrawing too soon would be disastrous.

McCain shouldn’t be one to criticize for setting timetables.