walkback = "a partial retraction or softening of a previous statement that has been taken as definitive."

[Jonathan Lighter]

CNN reports that VP Biden's statement that troops may remain in Afghanistan
after 2014 "if requested by the Afghan government"
is "a walkback of an earlier statement" promising they would be out.

Here's an earlier ex.:

2010 Rachel Sklar at _Mediaite_
http://www.mediaite.com/columnists/obama-and-the-mosque-its-not-that-hard-people/
(Aug. 16): This is why Obama’s statement at Panama Beach that he was “not
commenting on the wisdom” of the project was not a walkback of his initial
statement on the Mosque. The right to build exists whether it’s “wise” or
not.

That's about the time I first noticed it.

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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