Politics: In this post, we call Newt Gingrich’s bluff on food stamps
- What I said is factually true. And to hide behind the charge of racism? I have never said anything about President Obama which is racist.
- 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich • Defending himself from charges of racism after he referred to Obama as the “Food Stamp President.” Gingrich claimed is was “factually true” because one in six Americans receive them. OK, Newt, we checked your numbers and you’re right — over 44 million people out of roughly 307 million received food stamps in February 2011, a record level that’s jumped by nearly 20 million since 2008. (Though we’ll add this much: The number is closer to one in seven, brah.) But the problem is tone, Newt. By calling a president a “Food Stamp President,” you make an attack that sounds less like a reasonable criticism and more like a broadside: Would you have said this about Clinton? Or Bush? Exactly. source