So let me see if I have this straight. Quin Hillyer is
now claiming
that Newt Gingrich is arrogant and committing an act of “bad karma”
because he challenged Mitt Romney to a one on one debate. He claims
that Gingrich’s challenge to Romney to a one on one debate GOP
debate is no different than George H.W. Bush insisting that John
Anderson, Phil Crane, Bob Dole and Howard Baker be excluded from
the stage during his one on one debate with Ronald Reagan in Nashua
shortly before the 1980 New Hampshire GOP Primary.
I think some historical perspective is in order here. During the
1980 campaign, there were a grand total of six
Republican debates all of which took place between January and
April 1980. It is worth noting that Reagan skipped
the first debate held in Des Moines on January 6th
and his absence would cost him as Bush would upset Reagan in the
Iowa caucuses just over two weeks later. Reagan would not make the
same mistake in New Hampshire and participated in the next GOP
debate on February 20th in Manchester along with Bush,
Anderson, Connally, Crane, Dole and Baker.
Seventy-two hours later all hell would
break loose twenty miles south in Nashua. Yet it is worth
remembering that particular debate was initially sponsored by
The Nashua Telegram and
they only issued invitations to Reagan and Bush. The Federal
Elections Commission ruled the newspaper couldn’t sponsor the
debate without extending invitations to all candidates. So Reagan
put up the money to sponsor the debate (which is why he could later
say he was paying for the microphone.) But why would Reagan put
up the money if he wasn’t interested in a one on one debate with
Bush? Indeed, the other candidates initially directed their
anger towards Reagan, not Bush. The Reagan campaign’s decision to
include the other candidates came only hours before the debate was
scheduled to begin and neither Bush nor The Nashua
Telegram would budge. Of course, as it turned out, the debate
itself was anti-climatic. With the audience and the Nashua Four
applauding in approval with Bush sitting there not knowing what had
hit him, The Gipper won the debate before it had begun.
Now let’s fast forward to the present day. If we keep in mind
that Republicans had only six debates in 1980, the sixth GOP debate
for the 2012 campaign took place on September 12, 2011. In all
there were 16 GOP debates in 2011 not including the one one one
debates Newt had with Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman.
Were they guilty of bad karma for agreeing to debate Newt one on
one? With ten more debates scheduled to take place
between January and March 2012, the Republican candidates are
not exactly lacking for exposure and Newt can hardly be accused of
seeking to exclude them especially when he has been prepared to
engage them individually.
Newt Gingrich is prepared to face Mitt Romney in a debate any
time, any place. Newt has twice challenged Romney to debate him one
on one. He did so when he was ahead of Romney in the polls and has
done so again now that he is behind Romney in the polls. Mitt
Romney has twice said no to Newt. This is a mistake on Romney’s
part. If Romney thinks he’s the best candidate in the field
then there’s no reason he can’t (to use one of Quin’s favorite
words) eviscerate Newt in a debate. If he can do so then he sews up
the Republican nomination. But Romney’s refusal to debate
Newt only causes already existing doubts to linger. After all,
if Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum can debate Newt one
on one then why can’t Mitt? Could it be that Mittens knows he can’t
lay a glove on Newt?
