Newt Gingrich is circulating a memo to Republican candidates around the country on how to win the “closing argument” before the elections. He frames it as a choice between “paychecks and food stamps.”
Dear Candidate,
We are in the home stretch of the campaign. In less than thirty days, voters will head to the polls to voice their choice for the future of their family, their community, their state, and their country.
With less than thirty days left, it’s time to present your closing argument to the voters that you will aggressively repeat over and over until Election Day.
A closing argument is the central choice you want voters to have in mind as they head to the voting booths. It should be very simple and resonate at a personal, emotional level with the American people.
In 1980, Reagan’s closing argument was “morning in America” versus the malaise of Jimmy Carter.
In 1994, our closing argument was the Republican’s “Contract with America” versus decades of broken promises from the Democrats.
This year, the House Republican’s Pledge to America has set the stage for a powerful, symbolic closing argument for candidates seeking to unseat the left-wing, big spending, job killing Democrats: paychecks versus food stamps.
It is an unassailable fact that in June, more food stamps were distributed by the government than ever before in American history [http://bit.ly/bTKw79]. (It turns out that Barack Obama’s idea of spreading the wealth around was spreading more food stamps around.)
It is also an unassailable fact that in January 2007, when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took over Congress, unemployment was 4.6% and food stamp usage was around 26.5 million Americans. Today, the unemployment rate is 9.6% and over forty million Americans are on food stamps.
You can read the whole thing here.