inspectors a chance to succeed, based on hyped intelligence, without sufficient allies and without a plan for the day after -- and the manner in which the war was being carried out," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in an email. "He has taken responsibility for his vote for 15 years, calling it out as a mistake in 2005. And that mistake, together with the entirety of his long and distinguished record in national security and foreign policy, has informed his views ever since."

Nonetheless.

Biden's Saturday account included not even a hint of acknowledgment that he had actually supported the war. And given that the voter's question was about his support for the war, Biden created an inaccurate impression by mentioning "shock and awe" and then immediately saying heopposed what Bush "was doing."

If he meant he opposed particular aspects of Bush's handling of the war rather than that he opposed the war itself, he could have specified.

Biden supported the war

As CNN's KFILE team explained in detail, Biden did not oppose the war from the beginning. He repeatedly expressed support for the war as a Delaware senator -- though he did, as the campaign said, criticize Bush for how he handled the diplomacy, the conduct of the war and the pre-war intelligence

Biden did call his 2002 vote a "mistake" beginning in 2005. But he endorsed the invasion right before and after it occurred, did so again in public remarks later in 2003 , and continued to argue into 2004 that the US should keep up the fight