Gingrich Makes It Official in SC

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich stumped in Greenville on Friday, stopping at the Chick-fil-A on Pelham Road.

He used the stop not only to turnover a filing check to SC GOP Chairman Chad Connelly, but also to take multiple shots at President Barack Obama. 

One of the jabs included a direct challenge to the president. 

"We've heard some talk about debates the last day or two. Let me just say the Lincoln-Douglas debates were amazingly important," Gingrich said. "Maybe the most-important collective dialogue since the Federalist Papers. They debated seven times, three hours each, with a timekeeper and no moderator." 

It was in that same spirit, Gingrich said, that he would ask Obama to take part in a similar series of debates. 

"I will challenge President Obama to seven three-hour debates in the tradition of Lincoln -- he (Obama) announced in Springfield, he announced quoting Lincoln -- and I will give him a chance to participate seven times, three hours, with a timekeeper, but no moderator," Gingrich said. 

"And I will agree that he can use a teleprompter if that helps," he quipped. "Let's be fair -- if you had to defend Obamacare for three hours, wouldn't you want to be able to use a teleprompter?"

Gingrich spoke to a crowd of more than 100 at the restaurant, telling them of his rise to speaker in the 1994 mid-term elections that were made famous by Gingrich's brainchild: the so-called "Contract With America." 

Gingrich's 2011 campaign, which has picked up steam despite a tumultuous summer, is likewise centered around the "21st Century Contract With America," which includes goals like repealing Obamacare, while saving Medicare. 

"Let me just say very briefly I believe this is the most important election in modern times. I believe if the president were reelected with his deficits, his unemployment and his ideology, that he would feel totally vindicated, and his second term would be even more radical, and even more committed to re-making America. So I think is really a big deal," Gingrich said. 

"The central symbol of this campaign will be food stamps versus paychecks. Barack Obama is the best food stamp president in American history," Gingrich added. "I want to be the best paycheck president in American history." 

He predictably dug at Obama repeatedly throughout the event, saying in a seemingly tongue-in-cheek moment that the economic recovery could happen as soon as election night. 

"The recovery will begin late on election night, as people realize Obama is gone and the Democrats have lost the Senate," Gingrich said. "That very night investors will start investing, small businesses will start hiring, people will start thinking about what they're going to do, because the world's about to be better."