Sen. Obama, D-Ill., told reporters Saturday while flying from Montana to St. Louis that he's been consistent on his plan for a 16-month phased withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq.

"I am surprised at how… the press… I'm not trying to dump on you guys, but I'm surprised at how finely calibrated every single word was measured," CNN quoted Obama as saying. "I wasn't saying anything that I hadn't said before. That I didn't say a year ago. Or when I was a U.S. senator. If you look at our position, it's been very consistent."

The flap began last week in North Dakota when Obama said he might change his Iraq plan if conditions on the ground called for it. He placed some of the blame for the confusion on the campaign of his likely GOP presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., telling CNN the McCain's campaign "primed the pump with the press to suggest that somehow we were changing our policy when we hadn't."