GOP 2012 campaign rhetoric raising racial concerns

GOP 2012 campaign rhetoric raising racial concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hoping to win the hearts of Southern conservatives, "Newt Gingrich":http://www.thegrio.com/politics/newt-gingrich-caught-in-race-baiting-catch-22.php leaned into his argument that President Barack Obama is a "food stamp president ":http://www.thegrio.com/politics/new-york-times-asks-if-gop-is-taking-risk-with-racial-comments.phpand that poor people should want paychecks, not handouts -- a pitch that earned him a standing ovation in South Carolina during a presidential debate on "Martin Luther King Jr. Day.":http://www.thegrio.com/specials/perry-on-politics/newt-gingrich-vs-juan-williams-in-gop-debate.php "I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, and if that make 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 to own the job," Gingrich said. A day later, he turned the moment -- complete with the cheering conservative crowd -- into a TV ad as he works to claw his way to the top of the leader board in the closing days of the South Carolina campaign. Rhetoric like that from Gingrich and other candidates is stoking concerns among some blacks that the political discourse is rewinding to the days of "Southern strategy" campaigning that uses blacks as scapegoats to attract white votes. Yet, it's unclear whether this strategy -- if that's what it is -- will work on an electorate now accustomed to seeing African-Americans in high-ranking positions. "I see it as a retreat to the sort of bread-and-butter rallying of those who we might call racist, " said Charles P. Henry, chair of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. I see it as a "desperate strategy":http://www.thegrio.com/politics/new-york-times-asks-if-gop-is-taking-risk-with-racial-comments.php. to draw in those voters and South Carolina would be a better testing ground because of its sizable black population. While blacks are of 1.1 percent and 2.9 percent of the population, respectively, in New Hampshire and Iowa, they are almost one in three in South Carolina, where the Civil War began in 1861. That means scapegoating minorities stands to work better there than in either of those previously contested states, Henry said. "If it works, then one could expect to see it repeated in other primaries where blacks might be a force in state politics," he said. Gingrich's standing ovation came Monday during an exchange with debate panelist Juan Williams, who sought to revisit Gingrich's assertions in New Hampshire that he would go before the NAACP and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with "food stamps":http://www.thegrio.com/politics/juan-williams-defends-debate-question-to-newt-gingrich.php.. "Can't you see this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but as particularly to black Americans?" Williams said. "No, I don't see that," Gingrich replied.