Newt Gingrich likes to call Obama "the food stamp president."
He did it last August and he's been repeating it ever since, most recently yesterday.
What's Newt up to?
Clearly, he's pandering to the same resentment Reagan exploited when he complained about "welfare queens."
But there may be more to it. Brown University political scientist Michael Tesler has done a great deal of research showing that racial attitudes are still very strong predictors of how people feel about Barack Obama. It even spills over into attitudes toward initiatives like his healthcare reform and his Supreme Court appointments.
These racial attitudes contributed to what Tesler calls "the 'otherization' of Barack Obama by his political opponents."
Indeed, it shows itself in the so-called "birther" movement. More than half of GOP primary voters still believe Obama was born outside the U.S. And accusations that Obama is a closet Muslim still pop up from time to time at Republican campaign rallies.
Is it merely a coincidence that Gingrich has been calling Obama "the food stamp president" while also implying that African-Americans would rather be on food-stamps than get a job?
Hardly. Newt is playing a subtle race card, appealing to people who are OtherDim or OtherDumb.
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