{"id":12285,"date":"2011-12-07T13:08:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T18:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=12285"},"modified":"2011-12-07T13:09:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T18:09:26","slug":"santorum-v-newt-thanks-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/12285\/santorum-v-newt-thanks-to-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Santorum v. Newt, Thanks to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Troy, your analysis of Santorum\u2019s weaknesses as a debater<\/a> is well taken.\u00a0 You\u2019re also correct to draw out the positive of having so many presidential debates: it allows second tier candidates to make a mark in the public\u2019s consciousness with well-delivered messages whenever the moderator gives them 15 seconds to speak.\u00a0 Unlike Gingrich and Cain (and arguably Huntsman), Santorum has not made the most of his limited opportunities at these forums.<\/p>\n

But that might change with the growing boycott of Donald Trump\u2019s Newsmax<\/em> debate<\/a>.\u00a0 So far, only Gingrich and Santorum have confirmed their attendance at the debate on December 27th<\/sup> in Des Moines, IA.\u00a0 With Huntsman, Ron Paul, and as of yesterday Mitt Romney (rightly) calling the Trump-as-moderator idea a distracting publicity stunt \u2013 and Michele Bachmann leaning towards declining the invitation because she correctly points out that Trump is considering a third party bid \u2013 it means that Rick Perry is the only major candidate yet to decide.\u00a0 If he bows out, then the debate in Des Moines will feature a Newt v. Santorum one-off exactly one week before the Iowa caucuses.<\/p>\n

Despite all his miscues in the debates so far, Santorum would be face-to-face with the current GOP frontrunner seven days before Iowa Republicans \u2013 \u00a0a state party dominated by grassroots conservatives \u2013 goes to the polls.\u00a0 If this unique opportunity comes to pass and Santorum still can\u2019t master the sound bite, he should demand a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with Newt on who has the most compelling conservative vision for America.\u00a0 That means Trump would effectively become a timekeeper while arguably the two biggest conservative reformers of the 1990\u2019s go at it to prove their base bona fides.\u00a0 (And if Trump can\u2019t handle not being the star of the show, this gives Newsmax <\/em>an excellent reason to let him bow out.\u00a0 Besides, his participation has already cost them ratings with the refusals of several big name candidates.\u00a0 As a parting gift, they could let The Donald hock his new book<\/a> during commercial breaks.)<\/p>\n

Newt would relish the opportunity.\u00a0 He has already debated Herman Cain one-on-one<\/a>, and is set for a Lincoln-Douglas face-off with Huntsman<\/a>. \u00a0Moreover, he said he would challenge President Barack Obama to an L-and-D format<\/a> where each participant gets an extended period of time to speak and respond.\u00a0 How could he refuse to engage in the same kind of debate with Santorum?<\/p>\n

Both Santorum and Newt have thought seriously about the issues confronting the country, and this format would give them each the opportunity to demonstrate their seriousness to a national audience.\u00a0 And, with the slow news cycle during the Christmas break providing the perfect opening for sustained attention to the debate before and after, the uniqueness of the event would no doubt increase viewership and water cooler talk.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Santorum seemingly needs a miracle where all of the major candidates take themselves off the stage and allow him a one-time shot to prove to conservatives that he is a better Mr. Right than Newt Gingrich.\u00a0 That seems to be happening with every new debate decline.<\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Troy, your analysis of Santorum\u2019s weaknesses as a debater is well taken.\u00a0 You\u2019re also correct to draw out the positive of having so many presidential debates: it allows second tier candidates to make a mark in the public\u2019s consciousness with well-delivered messages whenever the moderator gives them 15 seconds to speak.\u00a0 Unlike Gingrich and Cain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2398,1972,2391,2026,869,1084],"class_list":["post-12285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-2012-presidential-campaign","tag-debate","tag-donald-trump","tag-election","tag-newt-gingrich","tag-rick-santorum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12285"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12292,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285\/revisions\/12292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}