During the primary slog, Barack Obama ran as the antiwar candidate who would end the war by removing one or two brigades a month until all combat forces are out of Iraq in about 16 months - a calculation Obama touted to Democratic voters. He claimed that he was the candidate who could best end the war since he had been against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand he would point out, had shifted her stance on the war.

But now as Obama enters the general election phase where he must compete for a wider range of voters, he has been talking less about troop withdrawal - something he explained was because he’d been spending a lot of time talking about the economy.

Today the RNC sent out an email to political reporters suggesting Obama would soon reverse, or at least soften his position on troop withdrawal in Iraq. In the body of the email was a lone quote from a Liberal DC think tank analyst, who wrote an OP-ED in today’s Washington Times. “Three or four of his Iraq advisers are hinting of greater flexibility. … That indicates the potential for some change in his previous position or at least some flexibility,” the quote read.

Today at a press availability in Fargo, North Dakota, Obama dismissed the claims as “pure speculation,” and that he has been consistent all along. “I believe the war in Iraq was a mistake, that we need to bring this war to a responsible end. I have said repeatedly, although it was recently quoted as something new, that we need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in and that view has not changed…I have always said that I will listen to commanders on the ground; I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability,” he said.

Noting his planned trip to Iraq this summer on a Congressional Delegation, Obama said, “When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies,” acknowledging that his views on Iraq are not static.

So is this a “reversal” for the anti-war Democrat to appeal to more conservative voters? The Obama camp says it is not, and pointed reporters to a list of quotes showing the candidate has used similar language throughout his candidacy - including a quote from a television interview immediately following his announcement last February.

“What happens [in Iraq] is dictated by conditions on the ground and what the commanders say,” he told 60 Minutes on February 11, 2007. And in a nationally televised debate last September, Obama cautioned, “I believe that we should have all our troops out by 2013, but I don’t want to make promises, not knowing what the situation’s going to be three or four years out.”

Read the entire list of quotes below the jump.

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