Now that Newt Gingrich has finally suspended his campaign - I have an idea on what his next step should be. Newt has been famous for threatening to have a series of 3-hour Lincoln-Douglas style debates with just about anyone with nobody taking him serious. Well what some cable news network with low viewership should do (which I guess could be any of them except Fox News) is take Newt up on his offer.
Here's the deal.
Well known lefty lobbyists or personalities would pay $10,000 for a half hour debate with Newt on the subject of their choosing (approved by Newt). Newt would debate five such persons which would make up to 4 hours of original programming for the network (when you factor in pre-debate time and post debate analysis) and a $50,000 payday for Newt. A win-win. They could probably do about four of such debates.
I like the idea but I don't especially like Newt. The potential exists for the network to use Newt as a stand-in for Mitt Romney and use this format to make Newt and by extension Romney seem unattractive to the viewing audience. What I'd really like to see is someone like Victor Davis Hanson or Charles Krauthammer take on their opposite numbers from the Left. That would be great television.