It's pretty clear now that the internal polling/focus group response on Obama's "You didn't build that" gaffe must have been devastating because it forced the President to quickly record a new ad claiming that his comments were taken out of context. Because when he said "If you've got a business - you didn't build that" he actually meant roads and bridges. You didn't build that roads.
As the Minuteman gibes, the most articulate President ever now says: "I didn't say what I said, and anyway, I meant the opposite." Obama wants you to know that he supports business-people and success. Adding a little bit of that much-sought context, here's how Obama lauded those engines of the economy in his Roanoke speech:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — 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.In other words: what's so damn special about you?
Extra - The Hill: "Obama campaign stepping up damage control over remark."
More - Legal Insurrection: "Obama and Warren cribbed 'build it' narrative from progressive Berkeley professor." That would be George Lakoff of the Little Blue Book.
9 comments:
How do we complain about politicians' sticking to carefully packaged sound bites when any slip of the tongue is pounced upon, removed from context and re-packaged as the latest outrage of the day? Now, in our Internet Age, it is cut and pasted on the Web over and over again until it becomes 'true'. After all - look at all the sources one can cite! Then, as the negative momentum builds, any effort to refute the nonsense is mocked as desperate flailing to hide the 'truth'.
Mitt Romney likes to fire people. Shirley Sherrod is a racist.
And now: Barack Obama thinks that entrepreneurs don't actually do anything.
The amount of 'analysis' of this has been staggering. The slide from having fun to heartfelt rage has been a sight to behold.
We lose the right to complain about the lack of honest dialog when we drag the discussion down to this level. Worse, we foster hate and anger where it shouldn't be.
You will see Jesus' face in a piece of toast if you want to believe He's there. Or you'll just see some random burn marks that look vaguely like a bearded face.
Dude, that is so deep.
No rage here, though, just bemusement at Obama's "Kinsey gaffe" and his explanation that what he said wasn't what he said.
Watching Romney massage nothing into something while simultaneously refusing to release his tax records, ostensibly because they would be selectively misrepresented out of context, has been a treat.
If Obama's remarks are a gaffe, then the word "gaffe" belongs with ironic, literally, and every other word that has had its meaning savagely beaten out of it.
As George Will said: how come the most articulate man ever has to keep explaining what he just said?
Well, at least the private sector is doing fine.
You're right, it is amazing how Imaginary Obama fits Will's imaginary premise to a tee.
It's also fun how Obama can either let lies about his statements stand as is, or he can dispute them and therefore be reeling on the ropes. Heads you lose... tails you lose, plus you use a teleprompter.
Another question would be why conservatives think that denying Obama's oratorical aptitude has just GOT to catch on outside the echo chamber, if only they keep doing it. Stay the course!
When given a choice to defend "you didn't build it" or let is stand, Obama chose both. He ignored it for a week...then the focus group results came back and quite suddenly "I meant roads and bridges!"
All his recent gaffes were off-teleprompter because his campaign staff is trying to wean Obama off his dependency. Good luck with that.
As soon as that teleprompter! meme finally catches on with anyone who doesn't have Instapundit bookmarked - fifth year's the charm! - Obama's whole house of cards is sure to tumble.
How can people NOT realize that Obama is a terrible public speaker, when the sound of his voice makes me so angry?
Of course, "I didn't say what that guy claims I said" is nothing like "I didn't say what I said."
Even better is the spin that Obama "cribbed" the narrative "verbatim." As if the "we stand on the shoulders of..." concept recently sprang new and fully-formed from one professor's head. Isaac Newton, you radicalized socialist!
Benjamin Franklin:
"All the Property that is necessary to a man, for the conservation of the individual and the propagation of the species, is his natural right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all property superfluous to such purposes is the property of the publick, who, by their laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the welfare of the publick shall demand such disposition. He that does not like civil society on these terms, let him retire and live among savages."
Thomas Paine:
"Personal property is the effect of society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally.
Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came."
Why did the men who created America hate America?
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