Gingrich's tough talk on food stamps may backfire

"It is one of the code phrases of the 2012 presidential campaign: 'the food stamp president.'


That's what Republican Newt Gingrich calls Democrat Barack Obama in casting the president's economic record as a failure, and bemoaning what Gingrich sees as a poor work ethic among those dependent on government help.


Some see hints of racism in Gingrich's words, which the former U.S. House of Representatives speaker disputes. But such tough talk did help him tap into the anti-government anger of conservative whites in South Carolina and win the presidential primary there on Saturday.


As the campaign moves forward, however, Gingrich's food-stamp imagery might not play as well, political analysts and voters say.


In a nation where millions of families are struggling to get by, most people who depend on food stamps are white, and the vast majority are working or have just lost their jobs, according to government data and program administrators.


One in seven Americans now rely on food stamps, which give low-income people - a family of four with an annual gross income of less than $29,064, for example - help to buy groceries.  -------------


In Florida, where the January 31 primary is the next contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination, food stamps are viewed favorably by many residents hit hard by the collapse of the real estate and construction industries.


'I'd say 80 percent of the people are working or just lost their job when they come in for food stamps,' said Tom Gundersen, a supervisor for the Florida Department of Children and Families, which administers the federal program here.  -----------


Gingrich casts Obama as 'the greatest food stamp president in history.'


That's not quite true - yet.


During George W. Bush's eight-year presidency 14.7 million people went on the food stamp rolls, a half-million more than in Obama's three years, according to factcheck.org, a nonpartisan group.


Economic times are so tough for many people that Gingrich's strategy of casting food stamps as a negative symbol could backfire, said David Roediger, a historian at the University of Illinois who has written extensively about class and race.  ------------ "


(My note:  I know someone who lost her job and is now receiving food stamps ["Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program" aka SNAP].  Do you?)


http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10226003-gingrichs-tough-talk-on-food-stamps-may-backfire


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