Failure to coalesce didn’t work very well last time.
We had RudyMcRomney vs the Huckster, Hunter, Thompson and Keyes, oh yeah, and “Republican” Ron Paul. We couldn’t coalesce around a conservative so one by one they dropped out leaving it to a race between RINOs McCain and Romney with the Huckster and “Republican” Ron Paul bringing up the rear to the bitter end.
Hunter dropped out on Jan 19.
Thompson entered late, fizzled and dropped out Jan 22.
RINO Rudy dropped out on Jan 29 after getting third in Florida.
Loser RINO Romney dropped out and endorsed RINO McLame on Feb 7.
RINO Huckabee held on until March 4 then dropped out and endorsed RINO McLame.
Keyes finished 4th in North Carolina and officially dropped out of the race and the Republican party on April 15.
“Republican” Ron Paul withdrew on June 12 and endorsed a third party candidate. Unfortunately, he did not drop out of the Republican party.
Loser RINO McLame got it by default.
I agree with your idea that Gingrich should challenge Santorum to a series of Lincoln-Douglas style one-on-one debates and if there is a clear winner, then the loser should drop out, or in the very least, we may be able to better decide which one is better suited to take on Romney and Obama.
Did you catch Gingrich and Santorum on CSPAN Saturday at a Greenville Spartanburg forum? They both answered questions from SC congressmen Trey Gowdy and Jeff Duncan. Gingrich was up first and excelled. Santorum came after and was lackluster in comparison.
Here is video from CSPAN at the link. Listen to Newt answer a question about what is the American Dream and how he would protect it (at 23:50 through 28:45). Priceless. Also Newt’s closing remarks (29:30 to 34:30) were great.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/303686-1