He didn’t say what he said. If you think he said what you heard him say, you’re stupid.
Precisely!!!
It was no gaffe. he meant it.
The former co-founder of Car(l)Ma(r)x even supports the statement.
Slate.com eh? Another leftist off the reservation.
Back in the day, in my misspent youth, I was a student at the University of Oregon. I took a class in Marxism from one of the school’s strident and outspoken Marxists, and it was one of more eye-opening experiences of my life. To the point, then: Obama’s statement is classic Marxist thought. My prof taught us the same thing in our class - that is, the wealth appropriated by the capitalists came from the labor of the workers. The delusion of the capitalist is that he thinks that the wealth came from his effort, when actually it came from the workers. One day, at least according to the Marxists, the workers will rise up and kill the capitalists, thereby taking the wealth that they created through their labor. As my prof used to point out to the delight of those of us with more pedestrian values, good and bad have different meanings based on who you are. When the workers kill the capitalists, it won’t be good for the capitalists, but it will be good for the workers.
Famous Cherokee warrior Elizabeth Warren said the same thing last year, I believe.
In any case, I recognized Obama’s meaning the moment he said it. It’s an expression of his ideological core values.
God help us.
obama meant just exactly what we thought he meant, context or no context!!!!
There is at least one other obama quote that should not be allowed to go away:
“Take the pain pill”!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo
Building things is racist.
I find it difficult to believe someone like Obama could be so politically naive. He has been accused of being a socialist by the Republicans since and before he gained office, and he decides to go on a rant about how selfish business owners are for not wanting to pay exorbitant taxes. Then he complains his words were taken out of context. His problem is that the context is worse than the actual words. The context is not only the speech he gave that day but also his whole career.
How’s this from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957):
James Taggart on Hank Reardon:
“Rearden. He didn’t invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn’t have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it’s his? Why does he think it’s his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.”
She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn’t anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?” (page 262).
That’s what missing in this whole discussion of Obama’s about “You didn’t build that by yourself”: Every inventor of something new worked within an existing social and economic circumstance, and did what no one else did. That is why it is foolish to insist that the inventor didn’t do it by himself. Instead, he worked within the existing circumstances and did what no one else did. In that sense he did do it by himself in spite of what Obama thinks.
“You didn’t build that!”
Racist code-wording for you hate the BLACK President.
Just ask anyone at MSNBC or Daily Kos about this.
I commend Slate for trying to explain this to their readers. Afeter reading the comments from the “Progressives”, sadly, it didn’t work.
This is what he meant.
If you’ve got a business, that...you didn’t build that. Someone else made that happen.
That is why he must have a teleprompter. He cannot contain his hostility towards America without it.
He’s an idiot and a husk.
The thing about the spin from the left on this as to what the President “actually meant” is that it doesn’t at all change the meaning - the point of the speech still remains to diminish the significance of individual achievement - that is the only thing it could have meant - with that sentence preceded by the other mocking comments about people claiming to be “so smart” and claiming they “worked hard”, etc. Their spin is also just as incorrect - the roads and bridges would not be there without business owners and their employees producing the capital that was taxed. Look at the old pictures of towns / cities when they were first starting up - no roads, no bridges. Dirt paths and little boats to take things across. Totally wrong - he and his fellow liberals have it backwards.
I wonder how professor thomas crapper feels about this. who knew obama helped him invent the toilet with the help of roads and bridges.
I wonder how professor thomas crapper feels about this. who knew obama helped him invent the toilet with the help of roads and bridges.
The difference is important. Obama was indeed saying that the success of the business owner was neither due to hard work nor to the unique talent of the business owner...and in FULL context there is no escape for the liberals trying to claim it was a gaffe.
Rachael Larimore appears to be the first liberal member of the press able to understand both sides. Rachael actually ‘empathized’ with us. Very strange - stranger yet that Slate ran it...
Again, this doesn't explain why ALL smart, hard-working people become successful. He implies that government is the sole contributor to success.