Romney Chickens Out Of Mano A Mano Debate With Gingrich. The Race is Done & Dusted

This is why Gingrich has risen so far  so fast in the polls. GOP voters see him as the only one capable of taking on president Obama face to face in the debates. For Romney to chicken out of facing Gingrich mano a mano...well that says it all. The race is absolutely done and dusted.

H/t To Josh Painter. UPDATE; Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has a similar caustic eyed view of Romney in this matter at this link. "Romney closer to Pawlentyville"

RealClearPolitics: Romney Declines Lincoln-Douglas Debate vs. Gingrich

Mitt Romney is not eager to go up against Newt Gingrich in a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate, according to this reportby Erin McPike at RealClearPolitics:

With the Republican presidential primary appearing to have narrowed into a two-man contest, Human Events and Red State moved quickly to lock down a date for a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

The two organizations went so far this past Monday as to firm up the Annenberg Theater at the Newseum in Washington as the venue on Dec. 19 after another debate originally scheduled that day was canceled. For its part, the Newseum was excited to host the pre-primary forum.

There was just one problem. While Gingrich was ready to take his place on the stage, the Romney campaign politely declined in a series of mostly e-mail exchanges.

As Joe Guerriero, publisher of Human Events and Red State, put it to RCP: “Newt was all over it, and the Romney camp basically said no. It wasn’t a harsh no, but it was a no.”

A Gingrich spokesman confirmed to RCP that the candidate was interested and accepted the invitation, but a Romney spokeswoman didn’t return a request for comment.