There's no need to invoke race if his intent was to affirm Reagan's "the best social program is a job" sentiment. Newt's not new at this. He's an expert at provoking where it suits him. Nothing innocent or unintentional about this 'controversy.' Not now. Not before.
But again, this is not new stuff for him that he's talking about as a campaign talking point. He wrote about this in his book, his criticized GOPers in 2008, and on: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/gingrichs-naacp-food-stamp-remarks-stir-controversy/ The Gingrich campaign immediately responded to the press over Gingrich’s comments by sending out an email that said Gingrich’s NAACP comments were an effort to reach out to the African American community. The Gingrich campaign pointed to Gingrich’s book Real Change, in which Gingrich was critical of President Bush’s “failure to address the NAACP.” Gingrich said it was a “clear signal to the African American community that Republicans did not see them as worthy of engagement in dialogue.” Gingrich also chastised the 2008 Republican presidential candidates, in an appearance on Good Morning America, for skipping out on a forum hosted by Tavis Smiley, which focused on the issues of black voters. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul were the only candidates to agree. Gingrich said earlier this week that he was prepared to go into any ethnic community that would listen to his ideas. “There’s no neighborhood I know of in America where if you went around and asked people, ‘Would you rather your children had food stamps or paychecks?” Gingrich said. “You would end up with a majority saying they’d rather have a paycheck.” For a typical GOP candidate, I'd agree with you. But Newt is not your typical GOP candidate. This is an issue he's been engaged on for many years before this week, outside of political forums and campaigns. A few days after these comments, he also did a Latino town hall in New Hampshire, where he took a lot of tough questions on this very topic: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_...-gingrich-takes-a-risk-aims-for-broad-appeal/ He didn't just say this stuff to his own base. He went into a relatively hostile crowd and tried to argue the merits of his views.
Major We'll have to agree to disagree. i do respect the fact that you bring up that this is an ongoing issue for newt. however, i don't think that really proves your case, i just think it sells books. let's agree on this, whether he is genuine or not, his solutions are to symplistic and grounded in stereotypes
Oh yeah - I agree that his ideas on what specifically to do generally are somewhere between stupid and terrible. My only point is that Newt isn't being racist here. He really hates the idea that the GOP has given up on large segments of the voting population and has for a long time. Criticizing the GOP candidates in 2008 didn't benefit him in any way - all it did was alienate him more from the GOP. The best thing that could happen for the black community is for the GOP to start competing for their vote, and I feel that Newt should be applauded for taking on his own party for not doing enough there. Just as the best thing that could happen for the pro-life crowd is to have Dems start competing for their votes.
It would also be a really stupid tactic for the GOP to take in national elections. The black vote is not going to swing any electoral votes their way for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the fact that there are simply not that many black voters; this due in about equal parts to black people making up a small portion of the population and non-voting running very high among eligible black people. The second factor is that black people are largely concentrated in states that Republicans usually win handily in national elections, ie the south. Finally, any appeals to win the black vote on a policy level would probably lose them as many votes from their base as they pick up from the black community, if not more.
