UK: Newt and the " food stamp president"

The Economist

Newt Gingrich
Newt and the "food-stamp president"

THE AUDIENCE of Monday night's Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina reached its climax of enthusiasm during Newt Gingrich's exchange with Juan Williams, who asked Mr Gingrich if he could perhaps see how certain comments he has made in the past might give special offence to black Americans. Mr Gingrich is now using highlights from the confrontation with Mr Williams in order to make the case that "Only Newt Gingrich can beat Barack Obama" in a TV spot airing in South Carolina. (In case you missed it, or can bear to refresh your memory, here is the exchange in full:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/01/newt-gingrich)

When Mr Gingrich replied to Mr Williams that he cannot see why some might take umbrage at his comments that black Americans "should demand jobs, not food stamps" and that poor kids tend to lack a strong work ethic, I don't think it's quite right to say he was "playing dumb". On the contrary, Mr Gingrich acts as though he is so morally evolved, so essentially oriented toward truth—as though he surveys the world from such an Olympian height, through such crystalline air—that he is unable even to imagine how his use of venerable racist tropes could be sensibly seen to serve a purpose other than transmission of the plain truth. This haughty pose flatters the bigots, who Mr Gingrich knows full well are roused by talk of food stamps and an underdeveloped taste for honest labour, reframing their hoary prejudice as gallant unflinching fidelity to facts.

In response to Mr Williams' quixotic second attempt to coax the former speaker of the House into acknowledging that insistently calling Barack Obama "the food-stamp president" smacks of racial politics, Mr Gingrich rejoined: "First of all, Juan, more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in history." This incredibly misleading claim sent the crowd into an ecstasy of delight. "I know among the politically correct you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable", Mr Gingrich added to the warm applause of those in attendance brave enough to face the truth.

Of course, Barack Obama has put no one on food stamps. Population growth together with the most severe recession since the advent of the modern American welfare state, which was in full swing when Mr Obama came into office, conspired to make a record number eligible for government food assistance. The Obama administration has moved to expand eligibility for the SNAP programme, but the initiative has not come to fruition. That there is a safety net, and that it succeeds in keeping millions of Americans from the misery and humiliation of hunger, may be an uncomfortable fact for Mr Gingrich, but not for Mr Obama or for any of those among us who do not lament this humane achievement.

A thought experiment: On Twin Earth, does anyone call President John McCain the "food-stamp president"? Is it "politically incorrect" there to call him that? Or is it just so tactically weird to pin that label on a white Republican who inherited a huge recession that the idea simply never occurred to anyone? If, back in our world, it's not "politically correct" and not tactically weird to pin that label on a black Democrat who inherited a huge recession, then why not?


http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/01/newt-gingrich