In fact, Obama himself
Here's what he said in context:
"Look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."CBS explains that Obama didn't really mean that, and that the ad the Romney campaign put up revealed that the small business owner who appeared in it declaring that he had built the business on his own had received government loans, as if the borrower himself were not liable for those loans personally.
In addition, Romney also encouraged someone 10 years ago to remember the people (like parents) who helped them get where they are today.
Nowhere does CBS mention that the famous "roads and bridges" (and the pensions for those whose hands built them) Obama was supposedly referring to were paid with the tax dollars of the very entrepreneurs he mocked.
The Christian Science Monitor rushed in to say this:
Examined in context, it’s pretty clear what the president was trying to say. As numerous media outlets have noted, it’s really a flubbed version of the famous Elizabeth Warren “there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own” speech that went viral last fall. Like Ms. Warren, Obama was making the argument that “wealthy, successful Americans” should pay a higher tax rate because they didn’t get to where they are without a lot of help from society. The line right before “you didn’t build that” was about roads and bridges – making it pretty clear that it was infrastructure the president was referring to, not businesses.
But the way it came out, it played right into the Romney campaign’s overall narrative about the president’s failure to understand how business and private enterprise work.Obama himself claims he didn't say what he said.
There's more, but we'll leave it there.
Let's say this. Let's say he did mean "roads and bridges" when he cried, "You didn't build that!"
What about the context? How do you explain this?
I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.LIsten to the attitude, not to mention the tone, behind those terribly discouraging, smart a$$, contemptuous remarks to hard workers.
Why would you, as president of the United States, denigrate the hard work and effort of anyone because someone else works hard too? Why wouldn't you encourage those hard workers, with words of support and friendliness?
These are the movers and shakers of the nation, after all.
And why, why, WHY would you think you're so all-knowing that you can criticize someone who probably DID work harder than everybody else by mocking them and diminishing their achievements.
Leave out the roads and bridges controversy.
This is contemptible language for a POTUS.
But it's typical language for a unionist and for someone who believes "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
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