Post-Racial: Newt Gingrich Takes On the Food Stamp-Industrial Complex

Newt Gingrich was at it again, calling Barack Obama the "food stamp president" and arguing that poor kids would be better off working entry-level jobs as janitors than slouching through another day at schruel. No doubt the beautiful people will be outraged, but Newt won't be able to hear them over the thunderous applause from everyone else. 





This is the sort of talk that gets people like Newt Gingrich tagged as "extreme." We are told that only the dreaded Angry White Male could possibly agree with Newt's "extreme" theory that poor kids would be better off with a part-time job cleaning schools than they are with yet another government program. Honestly, I would love for someone (anyone!) to tell me what in Newt's presentation is at all controversial, let alone extreme. Juan Williams tries to do some race-baiting, but I would like to think he was embarrassed to have to do so. 


(btw, I love this recurring theme about kids working as janitors. I don't recall when it first came up, but I do think it started as little more than a little off-the-cuff comment about how schools could save money by getting rid of the expensive union janitors and having the kids clean the schools. But, as you can see from the above clip, Newt has really developed this into a theme about schools, unions, opportunity, and everything else you can imagine).


Newt's been rightly criticized for his attacks on Bain Capital (although he is right to raise the issue in the first place), but he has also been wrongly criticized as being on little more than an extended book tour, rather than a presidential run. I don't know, he seems to be taking it pretty seriously.