Russert: You'll pledge to have all troops out by January of 2013?
Kucinich: By – by April of 2007, and you can mark that on your calendars if you want, to take a new direction.
Russert: Well, it's September of '07 now, so we're going to have a problem. (Laughter.)
Kucinich: Well, make that – make that 2009.

Russert: How can you do it in one year?...
Richardson: This is what I would do. I would bring them out through roads through Kuwait and through Turkey. It would take persuading Turkey. The issue is light equipment. I would leave some of the light equipment behind.

Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut promised all troops out sometime during the four-year term:

Russert: Will you pledge as commander in chief that you have all troops out of Iraq by January of 2013?
Dodd: I will get that done.
Russert: You'll get it done.
Dodd: Yes, I will, sir.

Former Sen. John Edwards said he couldn't promise to get all U.S. troops out in four years, but he said he'd leave behind only a few thousand and none in a combat role:

Russert: Senator Edwards, will you commit that at the end of your first term, in 2013, all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq?
Edwards: I cannot make that commitment.... I will immediately draw down 40 [thousand] to 50,000 troops and, over the course of the next several months, continue to bring our combat troops out of Iraq until all of our combat troops are in fact out of Iraq. [But we] will maintain an embassy in Baghdad. That embassy has to be protected. We will probably have humanitarian workers in Iraq. Those humanitarian workers have to be protected. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of a brigade of troops will be necessary to accomplish that – 3,500 to 5,000 troops.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York said that her "goal" is to have all U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2013 but that she can't promise that would happen. And some combat troops might remain.

Clinton: Well, Tim, it is my goal to have all troops out by the end of my first term. But I agree with Barack. It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting.... I will immediately move to begin bringing our troops home when I am inaugurated.... [But there] may be a continuing counterterrorism mission, which, if it still exists, will be aimed at al Qaeda in Iraq. It may require combat, Special Operations Forces or some other form of that, but the vast majority of our combat troops should be out.

Sen. Barack Obama took a very similar position, saying some U.S. troops would remain for an indefinite period for "counterterrorism activities," which we presume means combat troops.

Russert: Will you pledge that by January 2013, the end of your first term more than five years from now, there will be no U.S. troops in Iraq?
Obama: I think it's hard to project four years from now, and I think it would be irresponsible. We don't know what contingency will be out there. What I can promise is that if there are still troops in Iraq when I take office [and] if there's no timetable [for withdrawal], then I will drastically reduce our presence there to the mission of protecting our embassy, protecting our civilians and making sure that we're carrying out counterterrorism activities there.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said U.S. troops would remain if a political settlement is reached to end civil violence, but otherwise he would bring them back.

Biden: If in fact there is no political solution by the time I am president, then I would bring them out because all they are is fodder. But ... [if] you have a stable Iraq like we have in Bosnia – we've had 20,000 Western troops in Bosnia for 10 years. Not one has been killed – not one. The genocide has ended. [But] I would make a commitment to have them all out if there is not a political reconciliation, because they're just fodder.

Former Sen. Mike Gravel didn't say directly how quickly he could get troops home if he is elected, but he said Clinton, Obama and Biden should filibuster until President Bush agrees to bring home troops now:

Russert: Senator, are you suggesting that these candidates suspend their campaigns, go back to Washington and for 40 consecutive days vote on the war?
Gravel: If it stops the killing, my God, yes, do it!

• Edwards overstated his own proposal when he said, "I will say to the Congress ... you lose your health care" unless it passes universal health care by July 2009. That's an empty threat, since no president has the authority to strip members of Congress of health insurance which is given to them by federal law.
  
  When we asked Edwards’ staff what he was talking about, they sent us a recent press release that says Edwards plans to introduce legislation that would take such action. He would have been more accurate to say in the debate that he would ask Congress either to grant health care to all citizens or give it up for themselves.
  
  
• Dodd inflated the number of annual deaths from car crashes when he said “50,000 people lose their lives in automobiles every year…many of them because of the use of alcohol.” Actually, 42,642 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2006, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which includes accidents involving trucks, buses, motorcycles and pedestrians. Narrowing the figure down to passenger vehicle occupants (those who actually died "in automobiles") yields a crash-related body count of 30,521. It's true that 41 percent of the total vehicle fatalities were alcohol-related.
  
  
• Biden gave a figure many times too high when he claimed that 300,000 babies are born with deformities each year in the U.S. “because of women who are alcoholics while they're carrying those children to term.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, roughly 40,000 babies per year suffer from fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Meanwhile, 1 in 33 babies suffer from a birth defect of any kind, roughly 120,000 babies per year. Both numbers are far below the 300,000 Biden cites as being born specifically to alcoholic mothers. The statistics may understate the totals, as the CDC says many birth defects aren’t readily apparent when the birth certificate is prepared. Still, we're unable to find any support for Biden's 300,000 figure.
  
  
• We also caught moderator Russert giving an unfair characterization of Kucinich’s record as mayor of Cleveland. Russert said he “let Cleveland go into bankruptcy, the first time that happened since the Depression. The voters of Cleveland rewarded you by throwing you out of office and electing a Republican.” Cleveland did go bankrupt in the late '70s during Kucinich’s tenure as mayor, and he was subsequently voted out of office in favor of Republican George Voinovich. But that’s not the whole story.
  
  The city went bankrupt when Kucinich refused to sell the publicly owned electric utility to its private competitor as demanded by a bank holding the city’s credit line. But in the 1990s, Kucinich was vindicated. In 1998, the city passed a resolution that said the “City Council hereby extends its deep appreciation to Dennis J. Kucinich for having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system." A 1993 Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial estimated that Kucinich’s action would eventually help save the city’s families $200 a year, and it pointed out that the bankers who pressured Kucinich to sell to a private energy company had a stake in that same company.