Gingrich Town Hall Draws Huge Crowd

Maybe it was the packed school of nearly 1,000 enthusiastic residents that had presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in a positive and joking mood on Monday night.

In fact, the former Speaker of the House was in such positive spirits that he emphasized he is determined to run his campaign that way – free of any "outrageous attacks" on his competitors.

"Tomorrow morning I will release a letter to staff and consultants indicating my determination to run a positive campaign," said Gingrich.

Gingrich went as far to say that he will "disown any Super PAC or staff member" who goes negative on a fellow GOP candidate.

The "outrageous attacks" comment was actually Gingrich quoting Mitt Romney. The former Speaker complimented his fellow presidential candidate for making the statement.

In effect, Gingrich was calling for the Republican candidates to get rid of the negative politics, because despite siding with Romney's comment, he was also attacked by Romney in Manchester today.

Gingrich was also in Manchester this afternoon, arriving in Windham a bit late with fellow candidate Jon Huntsman. There, it appeared that the two were taking it easy on one another and sticking to the issues, and the Speaker did not detract from that approach in the WHS auditorium.

He did find time to once again challenge President Barack Obama. Tapping into his own background as a historian, Gingrich explained the origin behind the original series of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates. He said that if he were to challenge Obama to the same series, the President would probably jump on board.

"There's a question of ego," said Gingrich.

The presidential candidate fielded a bevy of questions from Southern N.H. 9.12 Project members, the group responsible for hosting the event.

Ken Eyring, co-coordinator of the 9.12 Project and of the event, said he didn't want to embarrass Gingrich as he publicly applauded him for honoring his commitment to Windham.

Following Eyring's acknowledgement, Gingrich later took questions from students in the community.

At one point, a student contemplating a military career asked Gingrich what he plans on doing with the military budget.

"I'd rather spend too much on the military as opposed to too little," said Gingrich.

The Speaker answered other questions about border control, telling the audience that there are "no innocent drug users" and that controlling the border will make it "dramatically harder" to get drugs into the country.

Also watching Gingrich address the Windham audience was another Windham audience – more than 200 people – clustered into the high school's cafeteria waiting and hoping for extra seats in the main auditorium.

Those residents watched from a monitor as Gingrich reassured the main audience that he will run a positive campaign, although he said he wouldn't be surprised if his opponents spend "about $9 million" in negative ads in Iowa.

That said, Gingrich leveled with the audience and said that they will be investing in a greater social campaign to get feedback from his supporters.

"The faster we hear from you, the faster we can have corrections," said Gingrich. "We need to have constant feedback from our citizens.

Gingrich made a point to say it was not enough to just get an audience member's vote.

"I am here tonight to ask you to be with me for the next eight years, to stand shoulder to shoulder," he said.