April 11, 2007 12:05PM # The Search for a Limited-Government Candidate Continues By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE Newt Gingrich, who continues to vigorously — though unofficially, so he can do it with million-dollar donations — campaign for president, appeared in Washington yesterday at what was billed as a debate with John Kerry on global warming. Some conservatives, disillusioned by the prospect of choosing among Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, have looked to Gingrich as an actually Reaganite candidate. He should have dispelled those thoughts yesterday. Instead of disagreeing with Kerry, [Gingrich said that global warming is a problem](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001457.html?hpid=topnews) and that “we should address it very actively.” He raved about Kerry’s book on the environment. He refused even to disagree with Kerry over the *urgency* of government action. Perhaps most un-Reaganesquely, he declared that while he preferred tax incentives to government mandates, “I am not automatically saying that coercion and bureaucracy is not an answer.” There’s a Republican mantra for the new century. ##### Related Tags [Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).