Jan. 24 Republican debate transcript

Williams: Governor Romney, time is up.

Mayor Giuliani, I can give you 30 seconds. You wanted in on this.

Giuliani: I'm the only one who's actually turned around a government economy. And the reality is, when I became mayor of New York, the economy of New York was in a very, very bad shape. Tremendous deficits, 10.5 percent unemployment, 300,000 jobs gone. We turned that around, cut unemployment by more than half, brought in 450,000 new jobs, and we cut taxes by 17 percent.

And we did it based on growth principles -- exactly the principles that are in the growth package that was introduced in Congress yesterday, which the Club for Growth said is the best stimulus for growth they've seen in a very long time.

I've had the experience to do this in the 17th largest economy in the world, and I can do it for the country.

Williams: Mayor, thank you.

Congressman Paul, please take 30 seconds of your own.

Paul: Well, you know, I think that we can't run on that program. I think what we have to run on is the old-fashioned Republican program. I can't be identified with this. I'm known as the taxpayer's best friend. I have never voted for a tax increase and I voted for the least amount of spending. So I'm not part of that crowd.

But what we need to do is reinstate Republican principles. Then we could run on it. But we have drifted a long way from that. And that is because of all of these programs.

But there was never -- my participation in this -- I was waving the flag the whole time, saying, "Slow up, slow up." This isn't going well.

And here we are, we're at the verge of bankruptcy. We're moving into a new era, believe it or not, with the dollar and our economy and the world economy, this is a new era.

Williams: Congressman, time is up.

As promised, our colleague, Paul Tash, the editor of the St. Petersburg Times, has been very patient with us. We're going to go to some of the questions that have been sent in locally for the candidates.

Paul?

Paul Tash: Senator McCain, this question comes to us from William Harper of Bayonet Point, Florida. "Our military leaders tell us that our Army is on the verge of breaking, and our economic experts tell us that we cannot sustain our economy through the deficit spending. Both tell us we cannot sustain our present effort in Iraq. You have stated that you would leave troops in Iraq for an indefinite period. How will you do this, both militarily and economically? Please, no generalities."

McCain: I know of no military leader, including General Petraeus, who says we can't sustain our effort in Iraq. So you're wrong.

The fact is, we're succeeding in Iraq. We're going back down to previous levels, and we will be able to withdraw troops over time if we succeed.

If we do what Senator Clinton said that she wanted to do night before last, and that's wave the white flag of surrender and set a date for withdrawal, then we will have expenses, my friends, in American blood and treasure, because Al Qaida will then have won.

We are succeeding in Iraq, and every indicator is that. And we will reduce casualties and gradually eliminate them.

Anybody who doesn't understand that it's not American presence, it's American casualties. We have American troops all over the world today, and nobody complains about it, because we're defending freedom.

That's one of the obligations of being the world's superpower.

I'm proud to be the only one on this stage that said we have to abandon the Rumsfeld strategy and we have to adopt the strategy that is succeeding. And that's happened.

I'm the only one that said that. It is succeeding, and we will be able to reduce our costs, and we will be able to have a stable Middle East, where our vital national interests -- national security interests are at stake. And I'm so proud of the jobs that the men and women in the military are doing there, and they don't want us to raise the white flag of surrender like Senator Clinton does.

They know they can win. And their message to you and to me is, let us win.