Obama caught being a smarmy douchebag?

[DinoDoc]

Of course the Romney campaign will be happy to take things out of context.

He spent the whole speech extolling government-funded infrastructure to drive home the point that business owners need roads and therefore need the government, it was exceedingly stupid, not out of context, thank you for playing

[giblets]

Quoting something and posting a smile doesn't make it any less incorrect.

[DinoDoc]

You've yet to say how the meme taken from the speech (The government is the wellspring of success in America) is out of context.

[regexcellent]

Obama was trying to say that business owners didn't build the roads, not that they didn't build their businesses. Still, the sound bite is being used to characterize Obama as being anti-business, which he is, and is widely known to be.

The speech itself was pretty ridiculous. Obama can't actually argue with his critics, so he argues with critics he makes up in his head. Critics who think that things like land-grant colleges and interstates are bad. Critics that don't actually exist.

[Aeson]

Except there are plenty of people who pretend their successes (and other's failures) are completely due to their own efforts, rather than being the beneficiaries (or not) of various avenues of external help.

[Berzerker]

Obama fu##ed up big time

just the way he said it, stupid, real stupid

what a dumbass

[Aeson]

It was a mistake, but not really much of one. It may still be very damaging, as any insignificant thing can grow into. I highly doubt it changes much of anything though. Ds will still vote for Ds, and Rs will still vote for Rs ... and the undecided are generally the ones who actually know what the candidates are actually saying, rather than just be herded off the cliff by whatever shepherd they've chosen to blindly follow. Though I do look forward to our first president elected by internet meme.

Basically it was mis-wording of a couple sentences that in context became clear anyways.

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that [alone]. Somebody else made [Others helped make] that happen.

Those edits are more in line with the meaning of the surrounding statements.

"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.

...

The point is, when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."

Perfectly reasonable points.

[MrFun]

@ MadMonk's post

[Dauphin]

Basically it was mis-wording of a couple sentences that in context became clear anyways.

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that [alone]. [Others helped make] that happen.

Perfectly reasonable points.

Interesting interpretation. I read it as meaning:
"If you've got a business, you didn't build [those roads and bridges, the American system]. Somebody else made that happen."

[Kidlicious]

Obama was trying to say that business owners didn't build the roads, not that they didn't build their businesses. Still, the sound bite is being used to characterize Obama as being anti-business, which he is, and is widely known to be.

The speech itself was pretty ridiculous. Obama can't actually argue with his critics, so he argues with critics he makes up in his head. Critics who think that things like land-grant colleges and interstates are bad. Critics that don't actually exist.

He really is anti-(big)business, which a lot of voters are. He certainly believes that government should help small businesses grow and that's what he was trying to say. I don't think this will hurt him at all.

[kentonio]

The speech itself was pretty ridiculous. Obama can't actually argue with his critics, so he argues with critics he makes up in his head. Critics who think that things like land-grant colleges and interstates are bad. Critics that don't actually exist.

It was quite clearly a counter to the stupid bastards who think that big business and the super rich shouldn't have to pay a fair tax rate and constantly paint their successes as if they were achieved without help from the nation as a whole.

[kentonio]

Oh and since when the **** was Obama anti-business?

[Aeson]

Interesting interpretation. I read it as meaning:
"If you've got a business, you didn't build [those roads and bridges, the American system]. Somebody else made that happen."

You're just saying the same thing. Those are some of the specifics (like teachers) for the "not alone".

[Aeson]

Oh and since when the **** was Obama anti-business?

Obamacare

[kentonio]

Obamacare

You mean apart from the huge boost for the insurance companies?