From The Orlando Liberal Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/liberal-in-orlando/former-president-says-newt-gingrich-appeals-to-racist-groups
Robert Sobel
Orlando Liberal Examiner January 19, 2012
If you have been paying attention to any of the Republican debates you will notice a recurring theme, race. Whether it’s subtle or not so subtle comments, every Republican candidate has had an obsession with the African-American community as well as other minorities. One of the biggest statements that has brought attention to the Republican field is former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich’s comments about young children and janitorial work. Newt Gingrich claims that children around the age of 10, in low-income areas should be given the job of janitors while firing the current adults who hold the position. While Newt Gingrich claims that janitors in New York make an “obscene” amount of money, acrroding to simplyhired.com the average salary of a janitor is around $22,000 a year. Head janitors, those who run the school and are in charge of all the people below them, can crack the $100,000 a year markwith massive overtime and years put in at the job.
President Carter: “I wouldn’t say he is racist, but he knows the subtle words to use to appeal to a racist group….When you emphasize, over and over, welfare, food stamps, and ‘why don’t the black people get jobs,’ and if I’m president, I’ll make sure they turn toward a work ethic, rather than an ethic of welfare and food stamps, that’s appealing to the wrong element in South Carolina.”
