GINGRICH CALLS FOR PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE CHANGES

The Telegraph

Saturday, October 8, 2005

CONCORD – Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed radical reforms for the style of campaigning and political debates Friday, but said the status quo should remain for the primary calendar being led by New Hampshire.

Gingrich called for an end to the Commission on Presidential Debates, and also urged groups in the early voting states to invite candidates of both parties to appear on the same stage.

The debates are “demeaning” to candidates and should be replaced by wide-open exchanges between the contenders in the style of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of the mid-19th century, Gingrich said.

Bipartisan events would prevent them from becoming attack fests that don't add to the debate on significant issues, Gingrich said.

“If they are all in one room, you can't sustain the viciousness,” Gingrich said of two-party candidate forums.

“I can be a partisan. I can do a reasonably good (anti-) Bill Clinton but that would be wrong for the country.”

A commission is considering recommending to Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean that two to four states with more geographic and cultural diversity join New Hampshire at the front of the primary pack.

Gingrich said states with more diverse demographics already have a voice in the nominating process.

“This is an endurance contest. Whoever is going to win has to prevail in a wide range of places,” Gingrich said.

The Georgia Republican said changing the order in the past would not have affected who the Democrats nominated.

“I don't know what they think the disadvantage is. Who is it they would not have nominated if things had been different? Would they not have nominated Gore, Clinton, Dukakis, Mondale?” Gingrich said.

“I think they are trying to solve a problem that does not exist and I would deeply oppose adding anything to Iowa and New Hampshire.”

For the first time, Gingrich confirmed that he might run for president in 2008. He said he would spend the next year promoting his book and an agenda of change to make government more “intelligent and efficient.”

A future candidacy depends on the reception to those plans from both the public and the candidates, he said.

“If I go out and articulate these ideas and nobody thinks of any of them, obviously I won't do anything. If I go out and five or six candidates use them, I probably won't run,” Gingrich said.

“If I go out and a lot of people are excited but the candidates won't pick up on them, then probably I would run. I think you have to wait until the summer of 2007 before knowing which world you are in.”

Gingrich gave a 45-minute address Friday on his plans for health-care reform to about 100 lawmakers and GOP activists in Representatives Hall. For starters, Gingrich said people need to realize that more than incremental change is needed.

“The idea of very big reform should not be seen as impossible, unrealistic or idealistic,” Gingrich said.

States should set up health-care purchasing cooperatives that allow people to track their health-care spending and be rewarded by smart choices that can build savings accounts.

Gingrich would also change insurance co-payments prior to a medical procedure into an “after-pay” system that gives greater reimbursement for cheaper alternative medicine that is effective.

“What would happen? People would start making rational decisions just as they do with every other aspect of life every day,” he said.