A chicken in every pot, a laptop for every homeless person

With Newt Gingrich in the presidential race, I can't help but recall his proposal in 1995 that every homeless person should be given a laptop and lifted out of poverty. I thought that was a stupid idea then as well as now. What possible use would they have for a laptop? Never mind that the poor today have cell phones -- they are not homeless. What made people homeless to start with? They'd just hock them for drugs.

And don't assume that the laptops would connect them to the Internet, because the internet was a new thing at that time.

The link above supports the idea but a quick search shows that this story is making the rounds on the Internet and is embarrassing to Gingrich.