If you think the GOP presidential debates have been lacking, a Tea Party group offers something different.
The Texas Tea Party Patriots will host a "modified Lincoln-Douglas debate," with Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain confirming their attendance.
Bill O'Sullivan, treasurer of the group, told National Review Online that the recent debates have been "superficial" and "frustrating."
Gingrich, the former House speaker, is a big proponent of debates in the mode of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, who in their 1858 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois took their ideas directly to the people in seven congressional districts across the state.
Lincoln lost the 1858 Senate race (back when state legislatures picked U.S. senators) but defeated Douglas, among others, to win the presidency in 1860.
At the most recent GOP debate in Las Vegas, Gingrich said that if he's the nominee he wants to challenge President Obama to seven forums akin to the Lincoln-Douglas debates -- each of them three hours apiece. He repeated the debate challenge this weekend at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition event.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/10/lincoln-douglas-debate-newt-gingrich-herman-cain-/1
