On Tuesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Radio Show,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich acknowledged that his front-runner status would open up his political record to the same level of scrutiny that has already torpedoed other candidates. And presuming he is eventually debating President Obama instead of other Republicans, Gingrich said he would emulate former President Ronald Reagan — whose catch-phrase “there you go again” was the standard response to attacks from President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential campaign
“Reagan thought for a long time about it,” Gingrich said. “He came up with a very simple phrase: ‘There you go again.’ And during the debate between Reagan and Carter, every time Carter started lying, Reagan would just smile and say, ‘There you go again.’ And everybody in the county said, ‘Got it. He’s lying.’ So, I’m happy to say I’ve already memorized ‘There you go again.’”
Gingrich said he had other tactics, including challenging Obama to seven three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debates with a time-keeper and a moderator to combat negative attacks. But he said Obama would be forced to go “negative” if the electoral options were “positive.”
“I want him to have to stand on a platform and defend a billion dollars’ worth of lies and smears,” Gingrich said. “This is a president who cannot get reelected with a positive campaign. If it’s two positive choices ending up in food stamps with Obama versus paychecks with Gingrich, everybody knows we will beat him very badly. So we have to expect they’re going to run a miserable, negative, vicious attack campaign. They’ll be proud of it. They’ll sit around on the evening telling each other how clever they are.”
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