NEEDED - weekly, no-holds-barred debates

Speaking to a medical convention in Washington, D.C., yesterday, Gingrich repeated an earlier promise to decide in October whether he'll run for president in '08. "If someone has sealed off the nomination by then, I'll relax," he said. If not, "I'll probably run."

The current system of candidates declaring almost two years before the election is "nuts," he said.

"The idea that you're going to go out in January and February of '07 to spend an entire year raising money to hire consultants to recruit key leaders ... It's demeaning. It exhausts the politicians, it narrows them and shrinks them."

Calling himself a pro-regulation, "Theodore Roosevelt Republican," he outlined his plan for tackling child obesity: Annual school weigh-ins to identify "fat and lazy" kids. "This is very politically incorrect," he said, "but you've gotta get back to the moral component here."

Should he get the nod, Gingrich pledged to challenge his opponent to weekly, no-holds-barred debates for the last nine weeks of the election.

Posted by Ken Jarvis at 6:38 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)