THE AUDIENCE of Monday night’s Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina reached its climax of enthusiasm during Newt Gingrich’s exchange with Juan Williams, who asked Mr Gingrich if he could perhaps see how certain comments he has made in the past might give special offence to black Americans. Mr Gingrich is now using highlights from the confrontation with Mr Williams in order to make the case that “Only Newt Gingrich can beat Barack Obama” in a TV spot airing in South Carolina.

When Mr Gingrich replied to Mr Williams that he cannot see why some might take umbrage at his comments that black Americans “should demand jobs, not food stamps” and that poor kids tend to lack a strong work ethic, I don’t think it’s quite right to say he was “playing dumb”. On the contrary, Mr Gingrich acts as though he is so morally evolved, so essentially oriented toward truth—as though he surveys the world from such an Olympian height, through such crystalline air—that he is unable even to imagine how his use of venerable racist tropes could be sensibly seen to serve a purpose other than transmission of the plain truth. This haughty pose flatters the bigots, who Mr Gingrich knows full well are roused by talk of food stamps and an underdeveloped taste for honest labour, reframing their hoary prejudice as gallant unflinching fidelity to facts. » Read more: Newt and the “food-stamp president”