A week or so ago, Barack Obama, in a speech delivered in Roanoke, Virginia, channelled a little bit of Elizabeth “there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own” Warren, and said the following:
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help… 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. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”
It’s a wonderful sentiment, but, unfortunately, it’s also soundbite that can be easily manipulated. And, having been rocked by Obama’s incredible ad campaign of last week, that’s exactly what the Romney team chose to do. They isolated the phrase – “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that… Somebody else made that happen” – and they constructed a campaign around it.
Sure it’s deceptive as hell, in that it makes it sound like Obama is suggesting that business owners don’t deserve credit for launching enterprises and creating jobs, but it could have been effective… if done correctly. Unfortunately, however, the Romney team didn’t do their homework, and they built their campaign around a family-owned business by the name of Gilchrist Metal, that, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader, had been the recipient of, “$800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority ‘to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment’…” as well as “two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000, and a smaller, $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008…” And, now, as you might imagine, quite a few folks are pointing out how ridiculous it is to have an ad in which the recipient of several government programs, funded by U.S. taxpayers, talks indignantly about how he built his company without any help. The best commentary I’ve seen thus far came from Lewis Black, who tied in footage of Romney telling Olympic athletes, during the winter games in Utah, that they should keep in mind that they didn’t get to where they are without the help of others. (“You know that you didn’t get here solely on your own power,” he told them.) It’s devastatingly beautiful to watch.
27 Comments
At some point, Mark, you just need to stop watching t.v. and scouring the net, and figure out what your own feelings and opinions are. They’re the ones that are most interesting to us.
So now the democrats are getting there talking points from a clown? So again what do Lewis Black, and Jon Stewart do for a living? Oh yeah they’re clowns. Now I now why I laugh everytime I hear Obama speak.
Yes, the truth can not be told by comics or writers. It can only be told by actors, like Ronald Reagan, and the beautiful blonde women reading teleprompters on Fox News. Great point, MK. Black’s points are completely invalidated by the fact that he’s a humorist.
In ‘King Lear’ , William Shakespeare wrote, “Jesters do oft prove prophets.”
But what the fuck did he know, mark k?
On the other hand, jesters have been allowed to get away with their criticism because the humor makes them harmless. They speak the truth, but neuter it in the process.
A friend shared the Black video on Facebook and received the following response. What do you make of it?
Mr. Y,
Inform your FB “friend” that he is misunderstanding the sentiment in Obama’s speech. It is not about “paying back” or owing something because you have been successful, it’s about your success being a result of publicly funded infrastructure, research, education, grants, etc. Without the publicly funded portions of America’s economy, he or other small business owners wouldnt have a business to run.
As far as I can tell, the only way to get rich is to accumulate the money issued by some federal government. Most people don’t recognize the stuff you print yourself.
I didn’t write that, Dan. A friend’s friend did. Like you, I think he’s missing the point. I shared it here because I thought that people might be interested to see the paranoid libertarian perspective.
Sorry if it came off as I was calling you the “friend.” I meant that (in my adventures) most of the people posting bullshit on facebook arent really my “friends” just someone I knew at one point in time.
“Without the publicly funded portions of America’s economy, he or other small business owners wouldnt have a business to run.” The country did pretty good before we had a gov’t, how’d that happen? People made livings, policed themselves, not saying it was perfect, but people did alright.
Uh…. mark k, do you not ever study any history? I mean, ANY? Even a little?
And this is just flat-out retarded: “The country did pretty good before we had a gov’t.” I don’t even know where to start with a statement like that. How does one parse the impossible?
People may have only lived to be 30, but 30 years of “free livin'” is worth 100 in the post-government world of antibiotics, hospitals, and communistic highways. Give me shit-filled streets any day. Now, that’s the smell of freedom!
John Galt
Your posts are as useful as racist rant at a KKK rally. Or a communist rant in 1982the USSR. Why do you bother with this nonsense?
Mark k
What? Puritan New England? Witch hunts and public hangings? Whore houses and gun fights? That’s what you want to get back to?
Two things
… not saying it was perfect, but people did alright… Yep, those slaves were livin’ the life!
Please understand the posts of John Galt at a deeper level. John Galt – the name should give it away.
Wait, I think Dan’s onto something. He had me at “whore”, but I like gunfights, too.
Tommy,
I know full well who the character John Galt is. I just dont understand why this person uses this handle to continually troll here with ridiculous nonsense. We get it. Ayn Rand was full of shit.
On your last point, I wholeheartedly agree. I actually enjoy his (her?) humor. As far as trolling with ridiculous nonsense, I guess we all could be accused of that from time to time.
Have a pleasant weekend!
“What? Puritan New England? Witch hunts and public hangings? Whore houses and gun fights? That’s what you want to get back to?”
Come on Dan, what part don’t I want to go back to. The gov’t should keep us safe, sanitary (Take the trash out). The fact that I want to have a 20 once soda, or ride my bike without a helmet should be left up to me. I’d rather see someone hung as a wich, then be told 20 onces of soda is too much. And to say that without gov’t you’d only live 30 years, total BS. You might be surprised to know penicillin and most of medicine didn’t come from the gov’t. In fact they stood in the way as normal. Schools would have to steal bodies for research. Sure life wasn’t perfect, but you didn’t go crying to the gov’t everytime something didn’t go your way, you man’d up and delt with it, and sometimes that killed you.
Gawd! What a twisted and nearly incomprehensable view of the world! Mark k, read a book! Take a class! I mean I knew you were a repugnant white trash asshole without morality, but that you’d prefer to see young women hanging from trees for nothing over giveing up mindlessly drinking solvents by the gallon (which costs our society hundreds of billions of dollars a year/countless preventable deaths from diabetes) is a statement so morally bankrupt, contextless, and vicious as to be unconscionable. Great to see the unvarnished views of the perverse & gutless lunatics which people the teaparty, it can only be sustained by vapid chowderheaded abusive fathers for so long.
Mark K — Unfortunately, your decisions don’t only affect yourself. If you get a head injury, you might not be able to man up and deal with it yourself, but may need help from others. I have friends who are emergency room doctors; they support mandatory helmets.
Here in NYC, our funny mayor actually hasn’t proposed banning huge sodas, only banning them at theaters and restaurants, to discourage drinking a quart of the stuff at a single sitting. I believe the only reason he’s doing this is because we have a diabetes epidemic. I don’t see what the big deal is. You can’t buy a bottle of gin at the movies either, but nobody complains about that.
Mark K, Bullshit! Let’s call a lie a lie. A quick and dirty search shows colleges, hospitals, and the US Department of Agriculture all taking part in the development of penicillin.
The Obama campaign is still having fun with this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z-z-U57BaSc
The Romney ads are getting worse.
Read the rest of the article:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/08/mitt-romney-sure-does-lie-lot-doesnt-he
Dan, I think that your personal attacks on Thom Elliott probably qualify as libel, but I draw the line at you calling the “John Galt” a troll. These are some of my favorite comments, and I certainly hope your ignorant attack will not result in a decrease in them.
From Metafilter:
Small business owner and candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Delaware Sher Valenzuela is slated to speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday as part of a platform meant to suggest business owners build businesses on their own with no assistance from government. The problem is that Valenzuela received millions of dollars in taxpayer funds as business loans from the US government, along with other government assistance. One Reddit user noticed the url for the full name of Valenzuela’s First State Manufacturing business was unregistered, and remedied that with full details.
http://www.metafilter.com/119379/Sher-Valenzuela-First-State-Manufacturing-received-millions-in-government-business-loans
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