Los Clinton y los Romney juntos

Iowa registró ayer un considerable atasco de precandidatos presidenciales que quisieron pasar el Día de la Independencia en el estado que abrirá el proceso electoral. Esto dio lugar a un pintoresco encuentro de unos minutos entre los matrimonios Clinton y Romney en el pueblo de Clear Lake. The Politico reproduce la conversación.

(...) "Mr. President, how are you, Mitt Romney," the Republican said after finding Bill Clinton working the three-deep crowd gathering along Main Ave. "This is my wife, Ann, and my son, Josh."

After introductions were made, Romney observed that "this is kinda fun."

"How many times you done this before?" he asked.

"Once or twice," Clinton deadpanned.

"I bet that's right," Romney responded with a laugh.

Romney then began to explain to the former president that son Josh had taken it upon himself to visit all 99 Iowa counties in a massive Winnebago dubbed the "Mitt Mobile," but Clinton seemed to already know.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, appeared Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the scrum that had quickly developed when Romney approached Bill Clinton.

"Nice to see you!" Sen. Clinton exclaimed to Romney.

Introducing Josh, Romney began to tell Sen. Clinton about his son's plan to drive around the state.

"He's been driving around," Sen. Clinton shook her head knowingly, like her husband, already aware of Josh's travels.

Proving he had been listening to how many stops Josh had made, Bill Clinton then piped up, "He's halfway home!"

"Well, it's a good deal," Sen. Clinton offered

"How many counties have you hit," Romney asked, "45?"

"About 50," Josh quickly responded.

"Well, he's over halfway," Sen. Clinton said, demonstrating her knowledge of Iowa's 99 counties. "You've got this built-in campaign team with your sons, boy I tell ya," she added, good naturedly.

"There's nothing like it," Romney replied. "If we had known, we would've had more."

At this, Ann Romney got a look on her face is if to say, "not so fast" and everybody enjoyed a good laugh.

"We'll see you guys some more," Mitt Romney said. "Yes, you will," Sen. Clinton quickly shot back.

The whole encounter lasted less than two minutes.

Asked on the way back up to his parade entourage if he was surprised that both Clintons seemed to be aware of Josh's travels, Mitt Romney said he was not.

"Oh, you know they keep a pretty close eye on what is going on politically."

Wanting to keep things gracious, Romney pointed out that while he and the Clintons "couldn't be more different on the issues," they both "agree that this is a great nation and this is a day we celebrate the nation's birth."

He was, however, a bit more partisan when he saw Rep. Tom Latham, the local congressman.

"You're lucky, you're following the Clintons," Romney joked.

"Right," Latham said with more than a hint of irony.

Back on the "Mitt Mobile," Ann Romney was a bit more gracious.

Though she has met the former president plenty of times, she'd not met Sen. Clinton before.

"Very warm," she observed. (...)