Don't look now, but the 2012 presidential election is under way, and candidates are working to score political points early - so why not take a potshot at Detroit while you're at it?
Yesterday, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said President Obama's policies are "going to lead us down the path to Detroit and destruction" on NBC's Meet the Press.
Here's the clip:
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Gingrich said Obama's policies are increasing dependence on entitlements. He called Obama the "food stamp president" in a recent speech in Georgia, his home state.
From the Detroit Free Press:
Gingrich... rejected a suggestion that race played a role in his May 13 characterization of Obama as "the most successful food-stamp president in American history." "That's bizarre, this kind of automatic reference to racism," Gingrich said. "The president of the United States has to be held accountable. And what I said is factually true." The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to 44.199 million in February, up from 44.188 million in the previous month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this month. Gingrich's comment about Obama being a "food-stamp president" came during a speech to the Georgia Republican Party's convention in Macon, Ga.
Jeff Wattrick, in a link-filled piece on MLive.com, called Gingrich's claim that Obama is following the same path that led to problems in Detroit "fiction."
Wattrick compared Gingrich to Harold Stassen, "a once-prominent, now barely relevant political contender who long-ago missed his title shot."
From MLive.com:
Just how exactly is President Obama making the nation like Detroit? Gingrich doesn’t really explain, except to say more people are on food stamps. Of course, that has less to do with any particular (current or former) presidential policy and more to do with that little (that is to say, catastrophic) economic collapse caused by imbecilic mortgage originators, equally stupid Wall Street investors, and borderline moronic home buyers. In truth, the U.S. is in no danger of a Detroit-like failure. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact backed up by evidence.
His evidence? Wattrick looks at job creation, education policy, tax rates, and crime rates and concludes that "Detroit should be so lucky" to follow national policy.
