1. “Food stamp president…” – Gingrich famously coined the term as his one-line descriptor of President Barack Obama. The idea was to ding the first black president on the record number of food assistance enrollees during his term (due to the Great Recession). But to many African-Americans, the term was loaded with racial stereotypes.

2. “I will go to the NAACP convention and tell African-Americans why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.” – Gingrich made the vow to a New Hampshire primary crowd (of non-black voters…) Needless to say, the civil rights organization was not amused by Gingrich’s offer to lecture black people, based on false stereotypes.

3. Barack Obama may hold a “Kenyan, anti-colonial worldview “ – Forgetting the fact that Barack Obama isn’t leading a British colony struggling for independence, and that he himself isn’t Kenyan (his father was), Gingrich mused in an interview with the National Review that the president just might be a secret Mau-Mau.

4. Pay poor kids to be janitors – Newt proposed a novel anti-poverty program, based on his disdain for “silly” child welfare laws: pay poor kids to become janitors in their own schools! (The plan also doubles as a way to save on real, unionized janitors.) Gingrich even chatted with Donald Trump about creating an Apprentice show to help the kids prepare.

5. Callista at Tiffany’s – What do you get the presidential candidate’s wife who has everything? If you’re Newt Gingrich, you get the (third) wife a $500,000 revolving account at Tiffany’s. When asked whether that’s an appropriate image for a guy pushing fiscal responsibility, Gingrich insisted, it’s a normal way of doing business.””

6. Give the poor a ‘trampoline’ – During the Florida primary, Newt took a shot at Mitt Romney for saying he was focused on helping the middle class, “because the poor have a safety net.” Newt’s response: “What the poor need is a trampoline so they can spring up. So I want to replace a safety net with a trampoline.” Boing!

7. To the moon! – No one can fault Gingrich for not having ideas. One of his most ambitious: colonies on the moon by 2020, a promise he touted on the stump, and in the GOP debates.

8. “I was a historian” – When he was challenged by Mitt Romney during the debates on the $1.6 million in fees he was paid as an adviser to the federal/private hybrid mortgage giant Freddie Mac (an entity hated by conservatives) – Newt had a clever explanation: he was not a lobbyist, he was a historian. Apparently, quite an expensive one…

9. Obama comments on Trayvon “disgraceful” – Most Americans and pundits graded President Obama’s March remark that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon as a moment of sincerity and humanity. Not Newt. He called the president’s remarks “disgraceful,” telling a conservative radio host Obama was “trying to turn” the Martin shooting “into a racial issue.”

10. “First of all, Juan…” – Fox News pundit Juan Williams triggered Gingrich’s famous “attack the moderator” debate strategy by asking Newt why he claimed poor kids have no work habits unless it’s for doing something illegal. Newt shot him a condescending look, and delivered the memorable prelude to a put-down.

11. Bring back the poll test? Newt sounded off about those he claims shouldn’t have access to our electoral process, saying, “maybe we should also have a voting standard that says to vote, as a native born American, you should have to learn American history.” America used to have such things before the civil rights movement. They were called literacy tests.”

12. 2012 is just like 1860 – During the Georgia primary, Gingrich called November’s election “the most consequential” race since 1860 – the year President Abraham Lincoln won re-election, followed, of course, by the Civil War. Some saw the statement as loaded with dog whistles, especially delivered “down south.”