The McCain campaign has sent me a statement on the quote we posted on below, in which McCain appeared to say that the timing of when the troops in Iraq come home is "not too important."

The story is snowballing rapidly. Dem leader Harry Reid has already hit McCain over the remarks today, and more Dems will be piling on shortly. Indeed, the Obama campaign is holding a conference call on this later this morning.

Here's what McCain's online guru, Patrick Hynes, sent over...

Sen. McCain has consistently opposed a timeline for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. And our friends on the opposite side of the aisle have a long history of attempting to twist Sen. McCain's words on Iraq. The fact that Sen. McCain opposes a timeline for withdrawal and is principally concerned about the safety of American troops and the security of Iraq is pretty much "dog bites man."

Of course, McCain did actually say the timing of when the troops come hope is "not too important." But in fairness to the McCain camp, they are arguing that he didn't say that the act of bringing the troops home is not too important.

Rather, they say, McCain merely meant that the timing of when they come home is not too important.

This strikes me as a not terribly meaningful distinction, and it isn't a great way to characterize the timing issue, given that it's obviously extremely important to many people. But it is a distinction worth noting nonetheless, because it's true that the question McCain answered was about the timing.