Newt Gingrich has officially been in the 2012 presidential race for less than a week and the former House Speaker from Georgia, who is sometimes gaffe-prone, already has put his foot in it.

Speaking at a GOP convention in Georgia last weekend, Gingrich called President Obama the “most successful food stamp president” in the nation’s history.

“You want to be a country that creates food stamps? In which case, frankly, Obama is an enormous success—the most successful food stamp president in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates jobs?” Gingrich said in a speech he delivered. “I would like to be the most successful paycheck president in American history.”

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this week, host David Gregory showed video of the speech and said that there are a lot of people who might think he used “coded racially tinged language” to make his point.

“That’s bizarre. This kind of automatic reference to racism,” Gingrich said, adding that with 47 million Americans receiving food stamps the president must be held accountable.

Gingrich also blamed Obama for the recession and severe economic and social problems that Detroit is experiencing. He believes that the president’s policies mirror the policies that destroyed Detroit.

“The Obama system is going to lead us down the path to Detroit and destruction. I think we need a brand new path that’s a path of job creation. And one of the central things of this campaign is going to be paychecks versus food stamps,” Gingrich said.

Racist or not, his remarks are very unfair. How can you blame a president for an economic meltdown that occurred before he was even elected to office?

(Photo:  Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)