Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas made history with a series of debates in their 1858 U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Douglas ultimately won that race, but Lincoln, of course, later became one of America’s best presidents.
Sadly, candidate debates in modern times are not especially illuminating. They often degenerate into personal attacks and attempts to embarrass other candidates, not necessarily to lay out a principled plan for guiding the country.
Is it unkind to observe, for instance, that there were no Lincolns nor Douglases in the Monday night debate in Florida among the four Republican presidential hopefuls?
Having lost the recent primary in South Carolina to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — and having lost his lead in polls on the upcoming important primary in Florida — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney spent a good bit of the time attacking Gingrich on being an “influence peddler.”
Gingrich declared the accusation false and later said Romney was “outrageously dishonest” for suggesting Gingrich had lobbied for government-run mortgage giant Freddie Mac, which was involved in the U.S. housing market collapse. He also noted that Romney owns stock in Freddie Mac and another mortgage company, Fannie Mae.