Jimmy Carter: Newt Gingrich Has "That Subtlety Of Racism"

(Real Clear Politics) - Former President Jimmy Carter says Newt Gingrich knows exactly what he is doing when he uses phrases like "food stamp president" and talks about the poor learning a work ethic. Carter says this rhetoric is "appealing to the wrong element in South Carolina."

"Newt Gingrich is probably as enlightened as I am about being gratified that we’re in the desegregation years in the South," Carter said to CNN's Piers Morgan.

"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," the former President said on CNN.