Salir o no salir de Irak, esa es la cuestión

Si no fuera por el caliente enfrentamiento entre John McCain y Mitt Romney, el debate de esta noche en CNN hubiera sido de lo más aburrido. Pero lo cierto es que los dos contendientes se enfrascaron en una discusión sobre si Romney abogó o no por la implementacion de un cronograma de retirada de las tropas de Irak. CNN ha enviado a un grupo de reporteros la transcripcion del intercambio. Aquí se la dejo para que saquen sus propias conclusiones.

Romney: "I do not propose nor have I ever proposed a public or secret date for withdrawal. It's just simply wrong. And by the way, raising it afew days before the Florida primary, when there was very little time for me to correct the record, when the question that was most frequently asked is, 'Oh, you're for a specific date of withdrawal,' sort of falls in the kind of dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found to be reprehensible..."

CNN moderator Anderson Cooper: "Senator McCain, tough words."

McCain: "Well, of course, he said he wanted a timetable..."

Romney: "Is it not fair -- is it not fair to have the person who's being accused of having a position he doesn't have be the expert on what his position is? How is it that you're the expert on my position, when my position has been very clear?"

Cooper: "He does not say he is supporting a withdrawal..."

Romney: "And what's interesting here is it's an attempt to do the Washington-style old politics, which is lay a charge out there, regardless of whether it's true or not, don't check it, don't talk to the other candidate, just throw it out there, get it in the media and the stream. There's not a single media source that I've seen that hasn't said it wasn't reprehensible. Even the New York Times said it was wrong. The Washington Post -- they endorsed you -- The Washington Post gave you three Pinocchios for it. It's simply -- it's simply wrong, and the senator knows it..."

McCain: "...As far as Washington politics is concerned, I think my friend Governor Huckabee, sir, will attest the millions of dollars of attack ads and negative ads you leveled against him in Iowa, the millions of dollars of attack ads you have attacked against me in New Hampshire, and have ever since. A lot of it is your own money. You're free to do with it what you want to. You can spend it all. But the fact is that...your negative ads, myfriend, have set the tone, unfortunately, in this campaign."

Un datico: Me entero que NBC los invitó a participar en un debate a dos el próximo domingo en Meet the Press. Romney dijo que si de inmediato, pero McCain rehusó la invitación.