was employed successfully as far back as Nixon.  But my admission of such isn't likely to change the disposition of some to assume evil in virtually anything attributed to the GOP.  I see good and bad in both parties, and more than one aspect to a number of issues.  n my world, the GOP nor the Democratic Party nor the Libertarians are always right or justified.

It was not only playing to racist southerners, it was central to Reagan's own Southern Strategy in '76, '80 AND '84. He wound not shut up about this woman.

He took one extremely rare example of a person who, despite being an identity thief of the first order, was convicted for biulking the system for a whopping $10k. Nevertheless he used her to paint the definitive picture of welfare recipients because he was courting white southern votes, not to mention implying a vast welfare fraud crisis that never existed to begin with.

To this day the myth lives on, the association of blacks and welfare. As soon as Newt turned his campaign to the south, he began calling Obama the "Food Stamp President" - which was a bafflingly obscure slander until you remember the general GOP tactic down south.

The association was very deliberately hammered into place by Reagan, and it had everything to do with the Southern Strategy.