On the Republican side, Senator John McCain has backtracked on comments appearing to support a sixteen-month timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq. Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday, McCain said, “I think it’s a pretty good timetable.” McCain later said he didn’t mean to use the word timetable.

Meanwhile, McCain has lent support to an effort in his home state of Arizona that would bar state and local governments from practicing affirmative action. Appearing on ABC’s This Week, McCain said he would back an effort for a referendum on affirmative action on the state ballot. A decade ago, McCain opposed a similar effort, calling it “divisive.”