Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are bigots.

Or, at the very least, they make profoundly bigoted statements that Strom Thurmond would be happy to put on his bumper.

You couldn’t possibly tell me that the notion that President Obama is the “food stamp president”, or that poor inner city kids “have no work ethic” isn’t shadowed by racist overtones. And, you couldn’t possibly tell me that Newt Gingrich hasn’t pandered to the fringe of the Republican Party. The same fringe that uses phrases like “Kenyan anti-colonialist” as a more, let’s say, “nicer” way to call him a verified member of NWA (well, at least the ‘N’).

And, then there’s Rick Santorum. The same Santorum who called rape babies “a gift from God” and the same Santorum who, while speaking generally about entitlement reform in Iowa, said he “didn’t want to make black people’s lives better by just giving them money” (freudian slip?). Considering only 9% of welfare recipients in Iowa are black (there are black people in Iowa?), the comment was weirdly placed and completely out of context. Santorum has said that he “stumbled” on his words… probably like how Trent Lott “stumbled” by saying the country would be “better off” if Strom Thurmond had been elected President.

I get it. Our generation has been extremely lucky to grow up in a society (mostly) free of nooses swaying freely with the breeze or divided lunch tables and diners, but the overtones of racism and bigotry still linger.

You couldn’t possibly tell me that this heavily bigoted and racist rhetoric thrown against the first Black man in the White House is purely coincidental.

With only four candidates left, the race to be the Republican nominee has begun a dangerous course to pander to the voters that believe President Obama was born in Africa and the voters that proudly war shirts depicting President Obama as Curious George.

During the campaign to when the New Hampshire primary, Newt Gingrich said, “And so I’m prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.”

I’d like to see to NAACP take him up on that offer.