By Patrick O’Connor, WallStreetJournal.com
Newt Gingrich has always fancied himself a historic figure.
Well, it looks like the former House speaker will get his chance to reprise another famous chapter from history when he and fellow Georgian Herman Cain stage a contemporary version of the Lincoln-Douglas debates to talk Medicare and Social Security reform.
Messrs. Cain and Gingrich have accepted an invitation offered by the Texas Tea Party Patriots to stage a wide-ranging debate on fiscal austerity, as the National Review Online first reported.
During the last Republican presidential debate, Mr. Gingrich called for a Lincoln-Douglas style showdown with President Barack Obama should be come from behind to win the nomination.
An organizer said the debate will be broken into a discussion over how to tame the three major entitlement programs – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The original Lincoln-Douglas debates, held in 1858, between then-Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas, a Democrat, and an upstart Republican by the name of Abraham Lincoln captivated the country as the two debated the moral and legal underpinnings of slavery. They have since come to epitomize the high-minded ideal of political discourse in the U.S.
To read more, visit: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/10/24/gingrich-cain-accept-tea-party-invite-to-debate-fiscal-austerity/