President Obama: The Welfare King?

Newt Gingrich plays racial resentment card at South Carolina debate

It’s certainly ironic that the South Carolina Republican debate took place on what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 83^rd birthday.  Ironic because this South Carolina debate was the most racially insensitive, with Newt Gingrich holding onto and ringing the racial dog whistle to a receptive and mostly white South Carolina debate audience.

Most notably, Fox News contributor Juan Williams cut to the chase by asking Newt Gingrich, “[Y]ou said black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps. You also said poor kids lack a strong work ethic and proposed having them work as janitors in their schools. Can’t you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?”  Newt was having none of it.  In his response where he casually rejected the premise of the question, Gingrich quipped, “No, I don’t see that.”

(See Also: Top 5 Most Offensive Comments Made by Newt Gingrich This Week)

Instead of perhaps making a less divisive comment, Gingrich doubled down going into a long monologue about young people including his own daughter learning the meaning of working for money from a young age.  This was a substantial dodge.  Especially, given the fact that his overall point is that black people as a group lack work ethic and that if we fired our overpaid union janitors and replaced them with poor kids in inner city communities the world would be a better place.

Juan Williams followed up by saying, “We saw some of this during your visit to a church in South Carolina where a woman dad’s asked you why you referred to President Obama as the food stamp president. It sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people.”