Tuesday, January 17, 2012

I'm really glad I didn't watch this...

(From Salon - but echo'ed on MSNBC and everywhere else).

The key exchange took place in the debate’s second segment, when Fox News contributor Juan Williams brought up Gingrich’s statement that “the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps” and his claim that children in poor areas don’t understand the value of work and could learn it by doing the jobs of school janitors.
“Can’t you see,” Williams asked, “that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?”
In a general election debate, this might have been a challenging question for Gingrich to field. But this was a GOP primary debate in a state where the modern Republican Party was essentially created out of a white backlash against the Democratic Party’s embrace of civil rights. Some in the live audience in Myrtle Beach hissed at Williams, one of the few Democratic-friendly voices on Fox, and Gingrich milked their outrage for all it was worth.
“No,” he said matter of factly. ” I don’t see that.”
Neither did the crowd, of course, which responded with one of the night’s most thunderous bursts of applause, a scene that was repeated when Gingrich punctuated his explanation to Williams by saying, “Only elites despise earning money.”
This came just moments after Gingrich had brought the house down by claiming that Barack Obama doesn’t believe that work is good and by railing against  “unconditional efforts by the best food stamp president in American history to maximize dependency is terrible for the future of this country.” It was all a reminder of Gingrich’s unparalleled ability to serve up pure red meat to a party base that has spent the past three years being sold a caricature of  Obama as radical redistributionist.
But then Newt really got lucky: Williams decided to ask him a follow-up.

“I’ve got to tell you,” he said, “my email account, my Twitter account has been inundated with people of all races asking if your comments were not intended to belittle the poor and racial minorities. You saw some of this reaction during your visit to a black church in South Carolina…”
Williams was referring to the grilling Gingrich faced from parishoners at the Jones Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church on Sunday, but by this point his words were being drowned out by jeers from the crowd. When they quieted, he finished: “You saw this during your visit to a black church in South Carolina, where a woman asked why you refer to President Obama as ‘the food stamp president.’ It sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people.”
More booing.
“Well,” Gingrich replied, “First of all, Juan…”
There were laughs at this.
“The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps under Barack Obama than any other president in American history.”
Cheers.
“Now, I know among the politically correct you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable.”
More cheers.
“Second, you’re the one who earlier raised a key point. The area that ought to be on I-73 was called by Barack Obama a corridor of shame because of unemployment. Has it improved in three years?  No. They haven’t built a road. They haven’t helped the people. They haven’t done anything.”
Louder cheers.
“So here’s my point: I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, and if that makes liberals unhappy I’m going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn someday how to own the job.”
By this point, the audience was practically chanting Gingrich’s name. When it comes to massaging the resentments of the party base, no Republican candidate has had a finer five-minute stretch than this during the entire campaign. It’s the kind of performance that fueled Gingrich’s unlikely polling surge this fall, and it’s very possible that it will do the same now in the South Carolina home stretch.