Gingrich Receives Endorsement from Kentucky Fried Chicken
By David Epstein
LOUISVILLE, KY – The political action committee of the national fast food chain KFC has donated $5 million to the “Winning Our Future” Super PAC that is backing Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, giving the former Speaker of the House a boost ahead of next week’s critical Florida primary.
Since receiving the money, Gingrich has gone to great lengths to speak about how great KFC food is and how it can help the country.
Mr. Gingrich’s campaign has largely survived based on money from donors to ‘Super PACs,’ which are like normal political action committees, except that they cannot coordinate with a specific campaign and there is no limit on donations.
Gingrich’s regular campaign had suffered several setbacks stemming from a mass resignation of his top staff members last summer when they felt that he wasn’t taking his campaign in the right direction. Though his campaign has since hired new staff members, he still has a far smaller organization than his rival for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney. Strong debate performances as well as ads run by Super PACs supporting Gingrich have leveled this playing field, and contributed significantly to his win in the South Carolina primary.
Gingrich’s Super PAC plans on using KFC’s money to place large ad purchases in Florida that will attack Mitt Romney. But the money has also had another effect; Gingrich has begun peppering his speeches with homage to batter-fried chicken.
At an event in Bagdad, Florida, Newt Gingrich said, “If you want to understand how fundamentally amazing American enterprise can be, look no further than this great chicken,” at which point Mr. Gingrich held up a KFC bucket. “Frankly,” Gingrich added in between large bites of chicken, “even their new grilled chicken is radically delicious.”
The Gingrich campaign recently rearranged the candidate’s appearances so that they all either take place in a KFC, or in a location with a KFC sign behind the candidate. Within his speeches, Gingrich has also begun praising KFC as a solution to the nation’s social problems, not just national hunger. “If we want help those inner city people that are laz…um, those with no history of working, we should have them get a job at KFC, they’d love that place,” said Gingrich.
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Posted by David Epstein
on Jan 30 2012. Filed under Headlines.
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