it will be a lincoln douglas style debate. >> seven lincoln douglas style three-hour debates.en wsh three-hour debates in the lincoln douglas tradition. >> seven three-hour debates in the lincoln douglas tradition after time keeper but no moderate. >> so i think he's challenging the president to seven three-hour debates. >> in the lincoln douglas tile. >> yes. so we don't know if that will happen with the president. we know it is happening, not exactly like that, but sort of lincoln douglas stale debates happening with jon huntsman. what should we expect some. >> well, the huntsman/gingrich thing wib don't know how long it'll go, but it is back and forth, back and forth. it sounds like it'll be substantive. st. ann's college in new hampshire. it will talk about national security. it is going to talk about foreign policy. and these are two policy wonks. you would expect them to mix it up and really get into the policy ideas and the values behind the policy that they are supporting. that's the idea, at least. >> so perhaps the format of that debate will help them, i guess, expre

wherever douglas goes, the next day lincoln re butts him. and douglas begins to rise. the press coverage is lincoln's rebuttals. so douglas finally says, all right, we will have the debates you want. but we are not going back to the two congress gross natural districts you have already chased me so we will do the remaining seven. that's how it got to be seven. now when i am the nominee in tampa and we are there and we are doing your show, at the time of my acceptance speech, if the president has not accepted, i will announce that the white house is now my scheduler, and wherever the president goes, i will follow him four hours later. >> wherever he goes in the country. >> wherever he goes. >> how long would you be willing to keep that up? >> until election day. >> so you think eventually he will realize it's in the best interest to do it? >> given the nature you are of modern talk radio and modern 24 hour news, that means you have gingrich taking apart the obama beach three or four times a day. >> how would you grade obama? >> on what? >> everything. his presidency. >>

douglas said i don't think so. so lincoln adopted a policy wherever douglas went lincoln would show up the next day. after about three weeks, douglas fouled out the newspaper coverage was lincoln's rebuttal of douglas's speech. douglas said, i'll agree to the debates. i'll debate you seven times. those seven debates, each one was covered by the newspapers across the whole country. lincoln had it published as a book in 1859 and it was a major factor in his emergence as a presidential candidate. if you help me become the nominee, in tampa, in my acceptance speech, if the president has not yet accepted, i will announce that as of that night, the white house will be my scheduleler. wherever the president goes,ly show up four hours later and i will answer his speech. now, in the age of talk radio, social media, 24-hour capable television news, i don't think it will take very many weeks for them to decide that having gingrich answer each speech is a dead loser and the debate is a lot better gamble. so i think the odds are very good

he's proposed these lincoln-douglas debates many times before. he's done several of them.sely about this one. john: does gingrich have to do this because he doesn't have the money in traditional media to get his exposure stphup. >> he's starting to get the money, but this has been his campaign strategy, to use free media to take advantage of that. in fact recently he was in iowa, and somebody there on the ground, a reporter said when are you going up, on tv, in iowa, and he said as soon as you feed this up to your station! news is free media. very effective. gan john this has all got to be driving mitt romney nuts. he's been frontrunner for so long and everybody comes along and leaps past'. what's he doing to try to get newt gingrich knocked off the stphop. >> i think you're going to see more pointed attacks from surrogates and governor romney himself. there is a force, as -- there is, of course, a balancing act there. people don't like the negativity but they also want the difference between the candidates and who's best able to beat president obama in the general electio

this was less lincoln douglas and more of a love fest. it got so mind numbing at one point that jon huntsman quipped on stage one of his own daughters was nodding off in the audience. and then newt gingrich says she was nodding off when i was speaking. so this was really more of a gentleman's, i guess, discussion than a debarkt i would say. >> so take us inside the gingrich-romney feuding. governor romney for months has led in the state. he has a vacation there. he was governor of the neighboring state in massachusetts. gingrich has closed the lead dramatically. do they think they can catch romney in new hampshire as much as everywhere else? >> reporter: they do. in fact, they're going to pull out the heavy artillery here in the next couple weeks. i confirmed with the gingrich spokesman that they will borrow a page from the john mccain play book. you'll recall, it went pretty well here in new hampshire. they'll launch a straight talk express like bus tour in the early voting states themselves didn't offer a lot of details or say whether o

penetrating, the crowds are responding, people love the idea of seven three-hour debates in the lincoln/douglas tradition. people like the degree to which, if guto newt.org, there is a substantive betweenst century contract with america. i am not sure yet, but i am beginning to think, we may see a totally different dynamic than anybody could have predicted a month ago, including me. i didn't think we would get here for another 60 days. but it's clear the country's talking to itself. it is clear that across the country, people are saying, you know, i think we need newt gingrich because we need somebody who can debate obama. we need someone who has done it before. we need someone with substantial, big ideas. so i think, whereas i would have thought originally twould be mitt and not mitt t. may be newt and not newt. and that's a very different form lafnlt we are having to redesign our campaign strategy because we are 60 days ahead of where i thought we would be. >> sean: you said they were going to throw -- as much mud as me as they can, washington post, you have a blogger that is actively asking

penetrating, the crowds are responding, people love the idea of seven three-hour debates in the lincoln/douglas tradition. people like the degree to which, if guto newt.org, there is a substantive betweenst century contract with america. i am not sure yet, but i am beginning to think, we may see a totally different dynamic than anybody could have predicted a month ago, including me. i didn't think we would get here for another 60 days. but it's clear the country's talking to itself. it is clear that across the country, people are saying, you know, i think we need newt gingrich because we need somebody who can debate obama. we need someone who has done it before. we need someone with substantial, big ideas. so i think, whereas i would have thought originally twould be mitt and not mitt t. may be newt and not newt. and that's a very different form lafnlt we are having to redesign our campaign strategy because we are 60 days ahead of where i thought we would be. >> sean: you said they were going to throw -- as much mud as me as they can, washington post, you have a blogger that is actively asking

on monday, newt gingrich and jon huntsman will participate in a lincoln, douglas, style debate in new hampshire. also traveling to new hampshire this week, mitt romney and ron paul. and by midweek, the focus returns to iowa, with newt gingrich and rick perry. and then on thursday, all contenders will participate in another debate. this one sponsored by the sioux city journal and fox news. that is scheduled for thursday. thanks so much for tuning into this special hour of politics. join us every sunday 4:00 eastern time. now stay right here for the latest news right here in "the newsroom." >>> mond >>> manuel noriega is on a flight now. he spent 22 years in prison in the united states and france for drug trafficking and money laundering. today, france turned noriega over to panamanian authorities before boarding the plane. >>> iran will not hand over the unmanned american spy plane it claims to have. a general is quoted as saying nobody returns spy equipment to the country of its origin. u.s. officials have not officially confirmed the drone shown in this video is american. although th

primaryt for for thext month, and as current gop front runner, newt he debated jon huntsman in a lincoln-douglas style debate in manchester. he is meeting its competitors in new hampshire. earlier in the day, newt gingrich held a town hall the town of londonderry. >>> still to come on abc7 news at 11:00, money and the women who make a lot of it. and men and female breadwinners. >>> reaction various duet effort on fack[ baby coughing ] [ coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] more pollution from power plants means more childhood asthma attacks. [ labored breathing ] there's technology that makes the air cleaner, but too many plants don't use it. we can't wait. epa must update power plant standards to protect our kids. [ baby coughing ] so i used my citi thank you card to pi up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rockck i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, wi

newt gingrich and jon huntsman will face off in a lincoln-douglas-tile debate tonight. it's the 15th of the campaign so far. >>> down, but not out. the occupy protesters in several cities are gearing up for a big day. in seattle, they'll likely be forced from their encampment. and occupy protesters from los angeles to vancouver are threatening to close down ports on the west coast. they were successful shutting down the port of oakland last month. >>> two new york lawmakers are trying to get airports to hire passenger advocates. at every airport after three elderly people were searched by screeners. an 85-year-old florida woman says she missed her flight after she was told to take off her clothes and was then searched. >>> and scary moments on a united airlines flight heading from denver to l.a. the jet didn't get far before its right engine shut down. they made an emergency landing. touching down safely, which, as you can imagine, sparked a big round of applause from the 125 folks on board. >>> the first family got into the holiday spirit with the annual christmas in w

challenge the president to seven three-hour debates with a time keeper but no moderator in the lincoln douglas tradition. >> reporter: of course, there are still other candidates with in the race. >> join me. join me. >> reporter: former front runner mitt romney returned to his electability scene that unlike gingrich, he was success envelope business and government. >> i have served as a governor of a state and as the steward of an olympics. my perspective is informed by those experiences. >> reporter: another politician almost stole the show. >> governor chris christie. >> reporter: new jersey governor chris christie flirted with and decided not to run and that didn't stop him from sounding off on the current president during the federation's luncheon. >> i would like to remind the president that today is december 7th, 2011, not january 20th, 2009. he is way late to the game. way late to the game of leadership in america. >> reporter: it was a performance so well-received, many of the audience were regretting his decision not to run. >> he is inspirational. >> that was an awesome speech. >> a

okay, we'll do one or two, but then do something like gingrich proposed, lincoln douglas. >> and did one with huntsman and no coverage at all. >> that's the media's fault. >> we'll argue about this during the break. if you'd like to keep up on the media stories during the week, check our our website and the daily bash, and there's judy doing one. >> around the world, protests got attention. >> protests from wisconsin to egypt, libya, syria, england, russia and wall street. how were the stories covered and did the media take sides? >> and the shooting in tucson. how did the media fail in reporting that story? the answers next on news watch. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome gn out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year wagreat but next year's a be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and you can go deep sea fishi

. >> sean: how do you get, if you become nominee how will you convince barack obama with a lincoln-douglas style debate, seven of them. how are you going to get barack obama to agree. >> if he hasn't agreed by the time on second speech, i will announce as of that evening the white house is my schedule. and whenever he goes i will show up four hours later and take part his speech until he agrees to a debate. >> sean: you believe that will force him to -- . >> that is what lincoln did to douglas, i'm prepared to do it to obama. >> sean: mr. speaker good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> coming up former massachusetts governor, i'm going to tell him you said you are giving him that round. >> sean: still to come tonight, former governor romney and much more, please stay with us. >>> this is a president believes the next kentry is a post-american century. he's wrong. it has to be the american century. america has to lead the free world. and the free world has to lead the entire world. the right course under president obama's plans is to shrink our military, if we april ease or accommodate

. >> sean: how do you get, if you become nominee how will you convince barack obama with a lincoln-douglas style debate, seven of them. how are you going to get barack obama to agree. >> if he hasn't agreed by the time on second speech, i will announce as of that evening the white house is my schedule. and whenever he goes i will show up four hours later and take part his speech until he agrees to a debate. >> sean: you believe that will force him to -- . >> that is what lincoln did to douglas, i'm prepared to do it to obama. >> sean: mr. speaker good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> coming up former massachusetts governor, i'm going to tell him you said you are giving him that round. >> sean: still to come tonight, former governor romney and much more, please stay with us. >>> this is a president believes the next kentry is a post-american century. he's wrong. it has to be the american century. america has to lead the free world. and the free world has to lead the entire world. the right course under president obama's plans is to shrink our military, if we april ease or accommodate

so, lincoln began to follow douglas. and in about three weeks douglas figured out that lincoln was getting the press coverage for his rebuttals to douglas's speeches. after about three weeks, but was sri lankan and said it, all right, i will agree to debate you. but i am not going to go back to the two -- first two districts you already chased me in, i will do the seven. the debates or so central, i think they are the most and for exploration of constitutional freedoms as the federalist papers. they were carried widely in the newspapers. each of the seven debates got its own coverage. linkedin the next year had it reprinted as a book and it was a major factor to his rise as the president's candidates. if you make me the nominee, in tampa, when i get the acceptance speech, if the president has not yet agreed to have a series of seven debates, i will announce that night in my acceptance speech that whitehouse at that moment is my scheduler -- wherever he goes, i will show up four hours later and i will answer his speech ev

. >> sean: how do you get, if you become nominee how will you convince barack obama with a lincoln-douglas debate, seven of them. how are you going to get barack obama to agree. >> if he hasn't agreed by the time on second speech, i will announce as of that evening the white house is my schedule. and whenever he goes i will show up four hours later and take part his speech until he agrees to a debate. >> sean: you believe that will force him to -- . >> that is what lincoln did to douglas, i'm prepared to do it to obama. >> sean: mr. speaker good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> coming up former massachusetts governor, i'm going to tell him you said you are giving him that round. >> sean: still to come tonight, former governor romney and much more, please stay with us. what makes scottrade your smartphone's most powerful trading app ? total access - to everything. from idea to research to trade. including financials, indicators and real-time streaming quotes. whether you check your investments every day or every minute, our app can take them from thought to trade. at scottrade, seven-

newt gingrich and jon huntsman will face off in a two-man lincoln-douglas style debate in manchester, new hampshire this afternoon. there could be some bad blood. cnn has learned huntsman is losing a high-profile supporters to gingrich. richard brothers is a former state employee and security commissioner, formerly listed as one of huntsman's alternate partners in the delegation. brothers will join the gingrich team instead. >>> former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky will face some of his accusers this week. sandusky is charged with molesting ten boys enrolled in his second mile charity. now grown men, at least five of his alleged victims, are scheduled to testify at a preliminary hearing tomorrow morning. cnn's senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin says it will be an important session for both sides. >> this is going to be a very serious moment for these victims. because it is going to be the first time that they've told their story in public. it is a very embarrassing situation for most of them to be sure, and they're going to be cross examined by someone who is det

. >>> jon huntsman says he will take on newt gingrich in a lincoln douglas style abate later this month. why would a front-runner like newt gingrich agree to that? our strategy session will continue after this. [ mom ] scooter? your father loves your new progresso rich & hearty steak burger soup. [ dad ] i love this new soup. it's his two favorite things in one... burgers and soup. did you hear him honey? burgers and soup. love you. they're cute. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. hillary, did you notice that jon huntsman has agreed and newt gingrich has agreed that the two will have a lincoln douglas style debate in new hampshire as newt gingrich did with cain a few weeks ago. >> jon huntsman is smart because that's a good format for him. he's thoughtful. he's deep. it only raises him. not sure if i were newt i would agree to that, but i know why jon huntsman wants to do it. >> baupz he wants to steal votes. >> those are votes that could go to romney. >> these things don't always work out the way we think. huntsman is not herman cain. huntsman knows what he's talk

. >> reporter: tonight gingrich faced off with john huntsman in a lincoln douglas style debate in manchesterly on foreign policys in the house of representatives passed a bill today that doubles the maximum fine for the pipeline violations to $2 million. the bill also authorized as the hiring of two more federal inspectors, far less than is needed some say. the senate is expected to take up the measure as early as tomorrow. >>> in news of the world tonight, in iran state television there says iranian experts have recovered most of the data from a u.s. surveillance drone equipped with stealth technology. and iran says it can reproduce the drone through reverse engineering. tie ran tyran says it brought down the drone. but the united states says the drone malfunctioned. >>> a teenager from virginia is talking about his escape from kidnappers. the teen was abducted with his mother and cousin in july. a ransom was paid for his mother and his cousin escaped two months ago. he told his captors he was taking a bath in a stream, instead he escaped through the jungle two took two days. >>>-- he plans

. >> reporter: tonight gingrich faced off with john huntsman in a lincoln douglas style debate in manchestermostly on foreign policys in the house of representatives passed a bill today that doubles the maximum fine for the pipeline violations to $2 million. the bill also authorized as the hiring of two more federal inspectors, far less than is needed some say. the senate is expected to take up the measure as early as tomorrow. >>> in news of the world tonight, in iran state television there says iranian experts have recovered most of the data from a u.s. surveillance drone equipped with stealth technology. and iran says it can reproduce the drone through reverse engineering. tie ran tyran says it brought down the drone. but the united states says the drone malfunctioned. >>> a teenager from virginia is talking about his escape from kidnappers. the teen was abducted with his mother and cousin in july. a ransom was paid for his mother and his cousin escaped two months ago. he told his captors he was taking a bath in a stream, instead he escaped through the jungle two took two days. >>>-- he p

more a lovefest than lincoln/douglas.hy this style of debate went out of fashion in the 19th century. >> well, a boring lovefest indeed if his daughter fell asleep. jim acosta, thank you so much. >>> well, turning now to international news, the unrest in syria. the latest u.n. report says that over 5,000 people have now been killed in the government's crackdown in pro-democracy protesters. zain verjee is following this for us. >> reporter: at at least 13 people have died today. cnn cannot end pep dent independently support those, but here are what some of they hadlines the headlines around the world are saying. neighbors start to feel the threat of syrian unrest. it says for nine months the world has been watching syrians be killed at the hand of the assad regime. for neighbors and former allies of damascus, this had been an obvious human rights issue. now, very quickly, we are seeing it become a fundamental regional security concern. today's zaman, this is the newspaper from turkey. you are the coast' risky brinksman. it

debatement being invite to do a lincoln-douglas debate.oing well in iowa. he could actually pull off a win in iowa. it's true. but i think right now, this is a two-man race. >> clayton: wow. michelle bachmann not on your list nor jon huntsman. and in fifth place, rick perry. think where he was a few months ago. >> yeah. if he had maybe not been so arrogant, had quite the swagger early on as he had -- he seems very relaxed in the trail right now. i think this horse could have maybe made another run at the top. but he's done. >> clayton: unbelievable. allall right. let's look at the composite. looking at all of these guys, a lot of different polls from around the country right now. what do we see when they look at these lines here? >> let me make a quick point on herman cain. you'll still see we're including herman cain because anybody that does an average that pulls him out at this point, it's just not good data. we don't have any national poll that reflect the news from saturday that he is suspending his campaign and we don't know yet, it'

he's going to do a lincoln douglas style debate with newt gingrich in new hampshire. he's got mo behind him. the bottom of the pack, herman cain is number six. he's still got all our attention. tomorrow he's making a major announce. tonight he's talking with his wife. that's pretty tough here's why he's got power. even if he gets out of the race, who he tells supporters to go to will shake up the race. who is the biggest mover of the week is this no question, it's the newtster. biggest loser has to be the hermanator. >> i like that. >> got to have some fun with it. >> let's bring in david gergen. david is back with us because you've got a special look at what's going on with mr. romney. the republican strategist alex caselanos is with us as well. david, let me start with you. you interviewed mitt romney a few weeks ago. this is what's going to come out. hits stands on sunday. there it is. and i want to ask you more about this. how do you think first of all mitt romney's week has been? seeing newt gingrich fly like a phoenix to the top? >> i think it's been a very roug

. >> and you actually did a lincoln-douglas sort of town hall with newt already. a lot of people -- i thought you performed very, very well in the debates and you conducted yourself. you haven't gotten into too many battles. the battle with rick perry over immigration and little skirmishes, but you get along with newt. he's viewed as a really good debater but you want to get your view out. if i was running and i wasn't leading in the polls, i would want to take advantage of any opportunity i can get to get a national audience. >> absolutely and that's why, as soon as the invitation came out, we saw newt immediately accepted, and we needly contacted news max and said we are in. look, i would be very happy if it was just the two ofs over there in iowa debating. we feel that we match up well against newt. look, i wouldn't be in this race if i didn't think we were the best candidate to lead this country and to win the race, that we had the strongest credentials to defeat barack obama in the swing states that matter. i happen to come from one. and that we have what it

maybe it turns into one of the lincoln douglas debates which means donald trump would have to be a timeper. >>> president obama offered a powerful response to republicans who questioned his foreign policy and whether he's too weak to take on america's enemies like iran. >> ask osama bin laden and the 22 out of 30 top al qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether i engage in apiecement or whoever is left out there. ask them about that. >> william cohen served as defense secretary under president clinton and currently the chairman and ceo of the cohen group. that was -- everybody wondered how would the obama president obama use this big foreign policy victory of his, osama bin laden if it came up in a political campaign. i think we heard the response. >> well, clearly he will use that during the course of the campaign, but frankly it's going to be old news by that time. he got a one week or two week bump if that with the news. it was something that republicans have been longstanding commitment to try to achieve president bush, smoke him out, dead or alive. the president produ

on monday, newt gingrich and jon huntsman will participate in a lincoln, douglas, style deb

a lot of people say, oh, my god, we've got to go back to the lincoln/douglas debates. the opening statements were an hour and a half, and each of them had an hour rebuttal. those things went on for six and seven hours. that is not, that is not my definition of a debate. and people think they know what a debate is because of in high school or something like that. there have been very, very few what i would call pure debates where there wasn't a moderator, somebody asking questions. >> host: jim lehrer, you write about this in "tension city," but the time ahead of the debate before it get cans started when everybody's sitting around waiting and c-span cameras are on at that point, and you're just all kind of sitting there. what do you write about when you talk about that in "tension city"? >> guest: well, what i always do when i -- in a hall you've got 6, 700 people, some of them not audience, not a town hall, they're just in the audience. chosen or selected or permitted to be there representing candidates or whatever, whatever reason or local people in the community. wh

he would try to get him to do the lincoln douglas debate. a track record, imperfect. absolutely. gave us surplus and welfare reform. >> he will be debating in the obama and media at the same time. >> the muttonhead who cares about the buffalo pills and the miami dolphins face down in doritos keeping up with kardashian. that is who matters. in october. >> you are on a roll. >> they look up and see newt gingrich, this angry looking dude against president obama. i know, who killed usama bin laden. that is what matters. >> do you think the country would be impressed with newt's intellect? if he were to keep the same tone he has and establishment. >> we agree he the smartest guy in the panel. people need excitement. they want to know so someone going to signal change in country? and do something. >> gingrich is looking that way. do we know this? i like the change of ideas. it's good for the country. >> maybe it's because i am so close to it. frankly, i'm to the point i have had it with the, you know, the obama gets a pass on everything. in 1972 you were little and you did this. >> i h

. >> i will challenge the president to seven three-hour lincoln/douglas style debates with no moderator. we will concede in advance he can use a teleprompter. i think he'll accept out of sheer ego. how do you look in the mirror columbia graduate, harvard law school, editor of the law review. how do you look in the mirror and say you're afraid to debate some guy who taught at west georgia college? >> this is something i've harped on for awhile. inside the republican base, they want a stylistic change. they want a stylistic change in how the republican party deals with president obama more so than they want the change itself. romney and obama stylistically, they're kind of the same guy. gingrich and romney, not so much. at least gingrich using language that does fire up talk radio. gingrich using language that fires up the fox news viewer. and that's what in many of the ways the conservative base, the reacting and responding to that. it's never been a strong suit for romney. finally the president brought his game face to the briefing room yesterday. seeming to relish the opportunity to re