Posts Tagged ‘George W. Bush’
Newt Gingrich’s triumph in the recent South Carolina Primary has been largely attributed to his sharp performances in two recent televised debates.
The signature highlight of debate #1 was a confrontation Newt had with Fox News correspondent and former-NPR reporter Juan Williams.
Williams asked Newt Gingrich if calling President Obama the “Food Stamps President” could be considered offensive to low-income people and people of color.
Gingrich’s indignant response, showcased in the clip above, largely blew-off the question. Williams followed up the former Speaker of the House’s response with his assertion that Gingrich might be coming across as “belittling people.”
Gingrich dismissed the claim.
Clearly “Food Stamp President” was meant to be a pejorative slam. But it’s not a surprise that the statement carries a racial connotation for many.
It is reminiscent of President Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign term “Welfare Queens” that many studies have shown carry a clear racial code. Representative Clyburn and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee condemned the label as racially coded.
“Food stamps” is the now-outdated term for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that President Bush had a large part in rebranding and de-stigmatizing.
When taking a look at the hard numbers, the President who hailed the largest number of food stamps recipients and who experienced the largest program growth was President George W. Bush, with a 63% jump in recipients and an increase in recipients for 7 out of his 8 years in office.
What was arguably more despicable was Gingrich’s pointed comment about Juan Williams after the debate:
I had a very interesting dialogue Monday night in Myrtle Beach with Juan Williams about the idea of work, which seemed to Juan Williams to be a strange, distant concept.
Hmm, not sure we follow you there, Newt. Especially when considering the way Williams reacted during the debate – oh, and the fact that Williams has been pretty prominently employed as a journalist, author, and commentator for years.
We tend to agree with this quote by senior editor at The Atlantic Ta-Nehisi Coates, which pretty much sums it up:
The notion that Gingrich is somehow unaware of that “food stamp president” has racial connotations, that he is being on the level when he says the black community should not be satisfied with food stamps, requires an extension of supernatural generosity.
"Yeah, I didn't see that coming either."
George Bush hasn’t been the president for nearly two years now, but apparently some pollsters are still gauging his approval rating!
And, well, it’s a point higher than President Obama’s, according to polls summed up by Politico. (GWB had 47% while Obama put up a solid 46%.)
Click through for commentary, then leave your own.
What do you think is going on here? When Dubya left office, his approval was in the 25%-range. (Some people must really like his book.) Is Obama really doing that badly that his predecessor is starting to look better??? Or is it all skewed public perception??
Mysterious Pro-Bush Billboard in Minnesota. (Minnesota Public Radio)
Check out This sign, brashly emblazoned with the smirking face of our former President. It looms over I-35, near the somewhat confusingly named town of Wyoming, Minnesota.
Originally, the general consensus (on the net) was that the photo was, well, a little unreal. There was no such billboard… the picture was a less-than-clever Photoshoped rendition.
Not so! declares Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio: “It was late at night and I wasn’t sure I’d seen the billboard correctly as I whizzed past it on I-35 in Wyoming last week on the way back from Wrenshall. But an e-mailer confirms I saw what I thought I saw.”
Mr. Collins is just as puzzled as the rest of us as to who paid to have the sign placed.
“Wish I could take credit for it,” says Sheldon Anderson, Mayor of Wyoming. A representative from an anti-Democrat group claims he gets “…calls every day asking if it was me.”
Continuing, he claims: “The person who I thought (erected the sign) did not put up the billboard. He has been contacted about keeping it up if the current owner takes it down.”
Would you claim that you wish that you had funded this monstrosity? Or maybe this is no monstrosity at all?
"Up In the Air" -- robbed?
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association hosts the Golden Globes and announce their shiny new owners!
More news about The spy who fooled me.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
Ow, My EAR! Vincent Van Gogh didn’t slice his own ear?
My very own Library. George W. Bush rakes in cash for his Presidential Library.
Science at its finest. Pancakes made more absorbent.
