Comeback Kid?

Gingrich believes the country is in a period of great peril, comparable to the time when Abraham Lincoln emerged as a leader. He cites the Lincoln-Douglas debates as his model for political exchange. Douglas, a successful senator, did not want to debate the upstart lawyer from Springfield, Ill., but Lincoln followed him from place to place, nagging him until he agreed. The debates were three hours long. There was no moderator. Though Lincoln lost the election, the debates established him as a figure of consequence and set him up for the presidential election in 1860. During that campaign, he delivered one very sober speech at New York's Cooper Union college. It was 7,300 words long and took him two hours. By Election Day, enough voters had read or heard about the speech to assure him victory. Lincoln wouldn't deliver another speech until his farewell address in Springfield on his way to be inaugurated president.

Gingrich, a former history professor, was reminded of all this when earlier this year he debated Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, at Cooper Union. The two genially sparred, and when moderator Tim Russert asked Cuomo who would be his party's best candidate, Cuomo replied that it was the wrong question. Russert should be asking who would be the best president, Cuomo said. "Sometimes you have to put patriotism above partisanship," Gingrich said. These are revolutionary words from somebody with Gingrich's sharply partisan background. The country wants different leadership, and Gingrich sees an opening. It's hard to imagine him winning the nomination much less the presidency with the baggage he brings, but he'll have a following if he can break through the canned commercialized process we're trapped in.

© 2007