Newt Gingrish and Mario Cuomo met recently to give speeches at Cooper Union in New York, reports Stephen Spruiell. The idea was to revive the memory of Abraham Lincoln’s speech there in 1860, and to use it as an inspiration for the 2008 campaign.
Gingrich proposed that the 2008 candidates agree to a series of debates and discussions in the spirit of Lincoln’s devotion to “language, ideas, and reasoned thought.”
That’s a good idea, and not just because of a nostalgia for the good old days of reasoned debate.
Republicans desperately need a venue in which they can publicly advertise their ideas to the voters. On a normal day all Americans hear is the reflexive liberalism of TV news and liberal activists. They rarely get a chance to hear conservatives talking amongst themselves.
Whether the Republicans presidential candidates can really sustain a series of substantive debates is questionable. It’s all very well to be in favor of debate and dialog. It is another to actually deliver it. For the truth is that the candidates are not members of a friendly debating society where the purpose is to chomp down on big ideas and masticate them. They are engaged in a high-stakes bid for the brass ring. And they know very well that their next unscripted remark could be the one that hits the TV news and sinks their campaign.
So don’t expect any real debates. The candidates can’t afford it.
But it sure would be nice to have some more conservative ideas out there in the public square.
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