In a May 27 Washington Post article discussing statements Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain made on Memorial Day, staff writers Michael D. Shear and Karl Vick asserted: “Neither candidate used the solemn day to launch political attacks.” In the same article, while discussing the back-and-forth between the candidates over Obama's support for and McCain's opposition to the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, which the Senate passed as part of a supplemental spending bill, Shear and Vick reported that McCain “did not criticize Obama directly on Monday.” But according to a May 26 Associated Press article, McCain said of Obama during an interview on Memorial Day: “He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time.” Washingtonpost.com posted the AP article on its site as early 8:22 p.m. ET on May 26, and according to a Google search, the article by Shear and Vick was first posted on the site at around the same time. However, the Post has yet to update the Shear and Vick article online by noting that McCain's reported comments to the AP contradict the article's assertion that McCain did not criticize Obama on Memorial Day.

The AP article also quoted McCain saying, “If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn't had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly,” and, “For him to talk about dates for withdrawal, which basically is surrender in Iraq after we're succeeding so well is, I think, really inexcusable.”

From the May 27 Washington Post article:

Neither candidate used the solemn day to launch political attacks, despite the increasingly sharp-edged comments from both camps about foreign policy experience and the competing veterans benefits bills working their way through Congress.

Before several hundred veterans and military families at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial, McCain asserted that the new GI Bill sponsored by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) and supported by Obama will drive soldiers out of the armed services at a time when the country is trying to expand the size of the military.

McCain said the bill, which would increase benefits for veterans after they serve one tour of duty, is a way of offering the nation's “deep appreciation” for those who have served. But the Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war predicted that Webb's bill would reduce the military's retention rate by 16 percent.

“Encouraging people to choose to not become noncommissioned officers would hurt the military and our country very badly,” McCain said.

The two presidential contenders have clashed repeatedly about the GI Bill, with Obama criticizing McCain for supporting a less-generous alternative to Webb's measure. McCain has fired back over the past several days, calling into question Obama's experience and credibility on the issue, though he did not criticize Obama directly on Monday.

From the May 26 Associated Press article:

Republican John McCain on Monday sharply criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for not having been to Iraq since 2006, and said they should visit the war zone together.

“Look at what happened in the last two years since Senator Obama visited and declared the war lost,” the GOP nominee-in-waiting told The Associated Press in an interview, noting that the Illinois senator's last trip to Iraq came before the military buildup that is credited with curbing violence.

“He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time,” the Arizona senator added. “If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn't had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly.”

McCain, a Navy veteran and Vietnam prisoner of war, frequently argues that he's the most qualified candidate to be a wartime commander in chief. In recent weeks, he has sought portray Obama, a first-term senator, as naive on foreign policy and not as qualified to lead the military.

The Iraq war, which polls have shown that most of the country opposes, is shaping up to be a defining issue in the November presidential election. McCain, who wrapped up the GOP nomination in March, supports continued military involvement in Iraq; Obama, who has all but clinched the Democratic nomination, has called for withdrawing U.S. troops.

“For him to talk about dates for withdrawal, which basically is surrender in Iraq after we're succeeding so well is, I think, really inexcusable,” said McCain, who has been to Iraq eight times, most recently in March.