Newt Gingrich-Jon Hunstman Debate

In a debate Tuesday afternoon loosely modeled after the "Lincoln-Douglass" debates, Newt Gingrich and Jon Hunstman participated in a free-flowing discussion of foreign policy and national security. The format was designed with only suggested time limits of five minutes (with each candidate free to use more or less time as desired), and very broad topics (the "moderator", who really just provided the conversation with general direction, simply stated things like "what are your views on China"). It was a format which enabled the candidates to speak at much more length and with more clarity on the issues than they would in the typical format, and although the candidates rarely "debated" as we would typically think and have seen several times so far through the campaign, it was a very good discussion of the issues, and one which both Gingrich and Hunstman will pursue more of as the campaign goes on. At one point, Gingrich stated that were he to win the party's nomination, he would challenge Barack Obama to "seven three hour debates" of that format. The moderator followed by telling Gingrich that he would "bet $10,000 dollars" that Obama would not take that bet, making fun of the comments made by Mitt Romney in the last GOP debate. Whether we see more debates of this format or not, seeing these two illustrate their vast knowledge on several different issues was very good, and would be a challenging yet productive tool for each of the other candidates to show that they really have the depth of knowledge to be President of the United States.