Martha Raddatz of ABC News vs. Dana Perino:

Q Can we also go to something you said this morning, which you said, opponents of the administration have misconstrued the carrier appearance by the President four years ago. I don’t know how they’ve misconstrued it. The President said, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” MS. PERINO: And he specifically also said, and this is a quote, “We still have difficult work to do in a dangerous country, which needed [sic] to be rebuilt.” He also said, “The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time.” And he has also said — let me remind you what he said on January 10th — Q But he said major combat operations are over. I mean, I don’t even know why you’re still arguing about that. I think the President — MS. PERINO: What the President has said — what we were talking about then was the fighting — we toppled the Iraqi government, we toppled the Iraqi army, and that was a pretty quick succession of events. But what the President then said, and he said on January 10th, is that he acknowledged many times that the U.S. underestimated the insurgence and the foreign fighters’ ability to foment sectarian violence and to perpetrate terrorist attacks. And then he also said, “Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.” Q So why quibble over something like this, that he said something that really didn’t happen? MS. PERINO: The President — because of what — I think that if you only take the one line, that the end of combat operations — major combat operations, that’s true, but the President also — Q Yes, but the banner is consideration, as well. MS. PERINO: Okay, well — and that’s what I meant by that this morning. And we have explained it many times. And you know what? I have a feeling I’m just on the losing end of this battle because the left has decided to believe what they want to believe, which is that the President was saying that the war was over and the troops were coming home. That’s not what he said, and I just told you specifically what he said, and I encourage people to read the whole speech. And that ship — I’ll get to you in a second — USS America [sic] Lincoln had been deployed for well over its stated period. It was supposed to be gone for six months, and I think it was several months later, that they were coming home. And it was the ship that — that mission was accomplished. And the President never said, “mission accomplished” in the speech, and people use it that — now I understand that that’s what the banner said, I understand that. But I’m telling you what the President — Q I’m concentrating on the President’s words, more than that. MS. PERINO: But Martha, what the President said is that the transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time. It is — we still had difficult work to do in a dangerous country which needed to be rebuilt. Q Do you believe the timing of all this is related to the May 1st anniversary, which is coming up, in terms of — MS. PERINO: I would certainly hope not. I think that if that’s true, that it is very troubling that Democrats would be so cynical to use our troops in that way, to use troops for a political PR stunt, and to withhold money from the troops and their families. We already know the hardships that are happening from the military based on this. And I also think that given that they say that they want to provide funding for the troops, it is curious why they didn’t appoint conferees for two weeks, and I’m not sure if that had anything to do with this particular timing. I know that their on-the-record quotes are saying that it’s just a coincidence, but certainly, the background chatter that they’re providing to you anonymously would lead you to — would only lead me to conclude that they are using the troops for their own political PR stunts.