If you are as sick of the sound bite debate format as I am, there is cause to cheer today. C-SPAN has announced that it will televise Saturday night's debate between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain in  Texas.  We shall finally have a shot at the longed-for Lincoln-Douglas style extended discussion.  Full answers will be allowed.  The timekeeper will be Rep. Steve King, with the subjects economic and social issues. Instead of a format designed to encourage punchy jabs at each other, the Cain-Gingrich debate has the potential to educate, elucidate, and even persuade. Instead of being a shooting gallery, the debate could become a classroom. The process by which the debate emerged as a televised national event is notable.  A grass roots group, the Texas Tea Party Patriot PAC, came up with the event as a fundraising opportunity, and the two men agreed.  Andrew Malcolm of Investors.com played a key role: We wondered out loud if in 2011 sitcommed Americans would...(Read Full Post)