Newt Gingrich, the Yacht Club Candidate

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Was Newt Gingrich’s comment about Barack Obama being a “food stamp president” a racist dog whistle? For chrissake. Of course it was. But I’m a little curious about why he’s only now getting so much attention for it. Back in October 2010 Gingrich said that Democrats are “earning the title of the party of food stamps.” In May 2011 he called Obama “the most successful food stamp president in American history” (and David Gregory called him out for using “coded racially-tinged language.”) I don’t know if it goes back even farther than that, but this has certainly been a well-honed applause line of his for at least the past year or so. It was no off-the-cuff zinger.