Mark
Newt Gingrich down as one person not suffering from televised debate fatigue
after the 19 Republican debates that will have been held following Thursday's.
At
a campaign stop in Florida Tuesday, the Republican
presidential hopeful said that if he wins the Florida primary next week he
expects to be the nominee; if that happens, he will challenge the President to
seven, three-hour debates with no moderator. Gingrich has been critical of the
media's coverage of the Republican race, including upbraiding CNN's John King,
moderator of last week's CNN-sponsored debate, for leading off with a question
about comments made by Gingrich's wife.
Gingrich
also said that if the President does not agree to do them, he will follow him
around campaign stops rebutting every speech he makes, citing the same strategy
by Abraham Lincoln in prompting Stephen Douglas to debate him. Gingrich pointed
out that after Douglas refused to debate, Lincoln took the same tack
until Douglas realized that the news coverage of his speeches
all wound up being about Lincoln's rebuttals.
