Lenore LaFount Romney, the former First Lady of Michigan from 1963 to 1969 and the Republican Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1970, talks about George Romney being on welfare relief.

This post from Sarah at Politicususa told me something I did not know: That George Romney was on welfare after he came here from Mexico. This is public knowledge that I somehow missed, and it helped me understand why George Romney was such a decent guy -- because he never forgot what it was like to need a helping hand.

But like so many of the born-to-wealth children of these inspiring figures, Mittens apparently thinks he's just special, and that no one ever gave him anything he didn't earn. Awfully hypocritical of him, considering that help was there for his father when he needed it!

Yesterday, Mitt Romney attacked President Obama over providing food stamps to so many Americans in a time of need, as if this were a bad thing, as if people in need should not be helped, as if it were not George W. Bush’s policies that took Clinton’s surplus and turned it into the epic disaster from which we are still recovering.

Yet, Mitt Romney knows need well. Here is video of Mitt Romney’s mother, Lenore LaFount Romney, talking about how his father George was on welfare relief after he was a refugee from Mexico.

[...] Will this stop Mitt Romney from bashing immigrants or poor people? No, because it’s not as if he didn’t know this. We all knew it about his father George, who never forgot where he came from and was a decent, hard working man.

George Romney watched his family struggle for years to pay off their debts and had his own business destroyed during the Great Depression. He knew hunger. His family lived on welfare relief in El Paso, Texas after fleeing to this country from Mexico. George Romney really did build his wealth, but only after he took some help from the government to get through tough times.

Mitt Romney is attacking President Obama for feeding poor children. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

In 2011, SNAP helped almost 45 million low-income Americans to afford a nutritionally adequate diet in a typical month. Nearly 75 percent of SNAP participants are in families with children; more than one-quarter are in households with seniors or people with disabilities. While SNAP’s fundamental purpose is to help low-income families, the elderly, and people with disabilities afford an adequate diet and avoid hardship, it promotes other goals as well, such as reducing poverty, supporting and encouraging work, protecting the overall economy from risk, and promoting healthy eating.

SNAP caseloads have risen significantly since late 2007, as the recession and lagging recovery battered the economic circumstances of millions of Americans and dramatically increased the number of low-income households who qualify and apply for help from the program. Yet, despite the rapid caseload growth, SNAP payment accuracy has continued to improve, reaching all-time highs. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that SNAP spending will fall as a share of the economy in coming years as the economy recovers and temporary benefit expansions that Congress enacted in 2009 expire.

Is Mitt Romney saying he would not offer food assistance to children?

[...] Mitt Romney continues to demonize the poor and immigrants, and claim that he built his wealth himself — but that is not accurate. Mitt Romney was born into a wealthy family, and had all of the perks of a top notch, private prep school education and never a worry about how to pay for university.

The fact that Mitt Romney continues to lie about this basic truth is beyond shameful. There really aren’t words, but Americans should make note of Romney’s utter lack of compassion and appreciation for the gifts he was given through accident of birth. Mitt Romney did not earn his privilege the hard way, as his father did. Mitt Romney was born to it and thus assumes that he is better than others, people just like his father, who might need a little help from time to time.

Mitt Romney’s father was on welfare relief, and then he went on to make a great career for himself. His son is lying about welfare relief, and making ugly nods regarding the racial makeup of welfare recipients. In fact, just last night, the Romney campaign sent me an email doubling down on their welfare to work lie and begging for money.

Shame on you, Mitt Romney. SHAME.

Wait, what's that I hear? It's faint, but growing louder....

Oh, that's it. It's the dog whistle of racial politics entering the 2012 presidential race, courtesy of Mr. White Privilege himself, Newt Gingrich.

Earlier this week, Gingrich spoke at a Georgia Republican Party convention and distinguished his potential presidency from President Obama's thusly:

At one point during the speech, Gingrich derided progressive economic policies that value public investment and spending to get back to work, saying that “we’re at the crossroads” and that “down one road is a European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system” and the other road is a “proud, solid reaffirmation of American exceptionalism.” He then went on to declare Obama to be a “food stamp president”:

GINGRICH: President Obama is the most successful food stamp president in American history. [...] I would like to be the most successful paycheck president in American history.

"Food stamp president"? Nope, no loaded imagery there. Every sentient being with an IQ in the triple digits saw that statement for what it is: a racist dog whistle. Even David Gregory couldn't ignore it and had to ask Newtster about it. Newt predictably protesteth too much and doubled down on the dog whistle by saying that we just don't want all of America to be too much like Detroit.

Yeah, that made the racist overtones all better, didn't it?

I have to admit to having a ridiculously naive point of view at Obama's election that we had reached a point in our country where we could have post-racial discussions. I didn't think we were color-blind, so much as color-indifferent. How stupid I was. The last two years have really opened my eyes to the deep and entrenched the undercurrent of racism is in this country and how these dog whistles systematically re-confirm to people of color that they are the Other. So while Newt clutches his pearls and declares that he's never said anything racist about President Obama, let me just say for the record that it is not for the privileged white man to decide what is and is not racist. The words he consciously chooses come with a history of neglect and exclusion for people of color and it is absolutely their right to find them racist.

Furthermore, if David Gregory was worth his salt as a newsman (*cough, cough* still can't bring myself to call him a journalist), he'd point out to the Newtster that the reason we have so many people on food stamps is because we HAVE been victimized by his plan of lowering taxes on corporations (note that he contradicts himself later, blaming things on GE paying no taxes) and less regulations. We've tried these Reaganomics notions for thirty years and frankly, you can't blame Obama that they haven't worked. Obama's policies have resulted in positive job growth for thirteen consecutive months. All that job loss? Happened during the Bush administration with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. Hard to run on that record, Newt.