…is worse than the quote.
It may be that when historians discuss this election, they’ll point to that untelepromptered gaffe as the moment that Obama lost the election.
14 thoughts on “The Context”
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…is worse than the quote.
It may be that when historians discuss this election, they’ll point to that untelepromptered gaffe as the moment that Obama lost the election.
Comments are closed.
There are (at least) two things which differentiate the entrepeneur from others who are smart and work hard, but which Obama –ahem– neglected to mention. They are vision and the inclination to take a risk. Romney, to his credit, discusses the latter in this interview.
It sure looks that way to me. I’ve seen a lot of acquaintances I wouldn’t have expected to be right-leaning, politically, making angry noises about that comment.
Well, now we know why Obama always uses the teleprompter even when speaking to children. Can’t let any of his true thoughts out so he has to script everything.
I thought part of the early back track was almost as stupid as the original statement. One of the back track deliverers said he was referring to the roads or the grid or the railroads were done by the infamous ‘somebody else’, that’s the part you didn’t do yourself.
I’ve worked in a number of places that went belly up for one reason or another and not one of them was in the middle of a vast waste land, without roads, power, or rail access. Business go belly up everyday, in cities, on streets, subways nearby, power still on, rail yard and warehouses opened and delivering!
What about people who buy businesses that are floundering from mismanagement or about to close because of bad marketing, and make them a roaring success?
My son is delivering pizzas while he goes to college. The fellow who owns the place bought out a guy who was days away from closing. The old owner had a bad product, bad management skills and a bad work ethic.
The current owner bought the eqpt, stayed in the same place, hired the only employee, sits in the same area, but changed to better food and better service and he’s making about $2.5K a week net.
I’m guessing Mr. Obumle thinks a business man like him STILL owes those ‘others’? If it’s about the ‘stuff’ we all have access to, why didn’t the first guy succeed?
Um, maybe it has to do with getting into a minor collision with your automobile and having “insurance” insurance instead of simply “insurance” is what the President is talking about?
??? I need the context for that, I’ll tell you what…
The “charitable” interpretation of “you didn’t build that” is that he was referring to the roads and infrastructure, not the business.
But that statement infers some kind of ongoing, permanent obligation to the government simply because your Dad’s generation paid for the Interstate and your education. Um, no – that’s already been paid for. And the ongoing maintenance is already taken out of my taxes.
No one (that I know) objects to libraries, food stamps for the very poor, or public roads. They object to bailouts to big banks and unions, and to wealth transfer programs that wrack up more debt than the American economy has in total net worth. The NPV of the entitlement state is -45 Trillion in the hole, or something in that ballpark.
Somehow, back when the US government was taking in 5-10% of GDP, we built the Erie canal, the railroads, the public schools, the Panama canal, the city of Washington DC, etc. etc. Today we can’t build anything, thanks to the Environmental Impact Statements. If there were any shovel-ready projects actually getting built maybe the Tea Party wouldn’t be so vehement.
I should get some bumper stickers made.
SO WHERE DOES MY OBLIGATION STOP?
THE HELL I DIDN’T
39% CORPORATE PLUS 35% PERSONAL ISN’T PAYING MY SHARE?
HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY LAST YEAR FOR THE ROADS YOU USE?
And so on. I know I won’t, but it’s fun to think how many variations I could think of.
It isn’t pointed out enough that even the “roads and infrastructure” bit isn’t -always- government.
Ignoring early turnpikes, canals, and railroads, even in the modern era we have the state of Washington telling Boeing “No, you can’t build there unless your build two freeways connecting it.” And… Boeing being -directly- on the hook. As opposed to “Well, they pay taxes which go to…” And two 747-capable airports, railroad upgrades, port upgrades, etc. With their own police and fire departments.
(No, it’s no wonder they move corporate headquarters out of Seattle and are building in South Carolina.)
But. They -did- build that. With active opposition.
I think at this point Obama wants to the lose the election. I mean it really benefits him the most in the long run. After this he no longer gets to play the victim card. Unless… he can forever write memoirs about how he was the president America was too racist to re-elect.
Oh and that video was right on. Romney needs to hit those kinds of talking points more. If this were a baseball game, that was a man on 1st and 3rd and he just drilled it out of the park.
No kidding. That verbiage and delivery was absolutely brilliant.
There is also perhaps the point that if {}bama doesn’t get re-elected then he is free to run for election later, after Romney (who made just about all his money buying companies with someone else’s money and asset-stripping them, pocketing the cash) mucks up the economy.
We have a version of that over here in the UK, where what normally happens is that Labour stays in just long enough to mess things up, Tories get in because the public are fed up and do the somewhat painful things needed to sort out the mess, public don’t like it and vote Labour back in again, rinse and repeat.
What the USA and the UK both need at the helm is people who have experience running businesses that actually make things and/or provide services that people actually want to buy – which does not include anything that involves finance, accountancy or the law. But, as it happens, such people are too busy making things and providing services.
If he loses this year, he will not run again — Democrats bury their dead. Just ask Gore, Kerry, Hillary, Duakakis, etc. There’s nothing less cool than the kid that used to be cool. The zero’s failure would not be rewarded.
Not that I disagree with that, but in the US, the one sphere that is almost entirely dominated by the Prez is foreign policy. Herman Cain knows all about making (or at least CEOing) products that people want to buy, but when he effectively said, “I don’t know,” when asked about Lybia, he was toasted like a thin-crust pizza. With respect to making things, govt mostly just needs to get out of the way, and that means reigning-in the bureaucracies – good luck with that, Mr. Pres – you work for them…
The gaffe must be hurting the Obama campaign pretty badly. The whole Obama court is fighting back, even Jon Stewart. The last couple of days on The Daily Show the lead segments were used to push back and defend Obama.