How did this quote …
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.
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. 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.
Turn into this quote?
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.
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. 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.
(Select the paragraph — it’s still there … just hiding!)
How do you turn President Obama into a private-sector hatin’ guy? Flat-out lying, that’s how. Does James O’Keefe work for Scott Brown now? Four Pinocchios with their Pants-On-Fire for our awesome independentalicious Senator!
Amazing how much abuse Elizabeth Warren and the President can get, simply for saying that someone’s gotta pay for roads, bridges, and schools. To Scott Brown and Mitt Romney, saying that government has a role is tantamount to “demonizing” the private sector. Well la di da, you learn something every day.
(And by the way, what does “Let America Be America Again” even mean, except to John Sununu and the wackiest of the tri-corner hat crowd? Has America ceased being America in the meantime? Did we become Tinfoilistan?)
I think Obama did mean the roads and bridges, but he should have said you didn’t build THOSE. Saying “that” does make it sound like he was refering to a business. Too bad English does not have the specificity of pronouns like Latin does to indicate how far back in the sentence to go to find the antecedent.
As for “Let America Be America Again”, I think Langston Hughes had something else in mind.
Mitt and Scott are using the President’s words out of context and against their clear meaning, making him seem to say something that he’s not. It’s pure BS — no qualifiers.
It’s pure BS — no qualifiers.
He did say he liked firing people — who didn’t provide good service. Your point is apt — Mitt was taken out of context. I’m not sure the context helps him all that much — to “like” firing people? — but in the case of insurance companies, yeah I get it.
Obama’s quote was not taken out of context to spin it somewhat differently; it was taken out of context to make up something completely out of whole cloth.
“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.“
should stop taking any candidate out of context. I admit the right does this and the left should as well. You yell at your people and I’ll yell at mine.
“I’ve had secret meetings with kings and queens?”
Case in point:
he will fire anyone who doesn’t give him good service.
much better
“The modern bourgeois society…. revolutionised industrial production…. industrial millionaires, the leaders of the whole industrial armies… industrial millionaires, the leaders of the whole industrial armies…. established the world market…. The bourgeoisie…. has set up ….freedom…. The bourgeoisie has …given a cosmopolitan character to …every country…. The bourgeoisie, by…rapid improvement… immensely facilitated means of communication….”
With a little editing Marx and Engels can give good sound bites!
forget about that game of Horse
Conservatives only seem to read and hear what they want.
No taxation
without representation!!One nation, under God
, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!!Congress shall make no law…..
It’s the new dominance of Libertarians that has resulted in this absolute selfishness. Conservatives shouldn’t be blamed, we understand the need for roads and government and compassionate assistance to the poor and the value of culture and education, that’s why we care about things like preserving marriage and morality too. But the Libertarians have made gains in pushing us aside and now they are drunk with delusions of power, saying things like “Our country was founded by a group of libertarians who refused to compromise their individual and democratic freedoms.” Nah, they weren’t Libertarians, they all believed in the common wealth of society and the state. They called the first states “Commonwealth”s even!
Happy days.
just let America be, OK buddy?
It’s pretty hard to get the roads and bridges in there, especially as Elizabeth Warren already said virtually the same thing and she sure wasn’t talking about roads and bridges.
All the libs basically believed what E.W. said, and Obama didn’t say much different. Why the desperate clawback? Isn’t this what you guys truly believe?
Among other things. What part did you miss?
Care to amend?
I.e., Warren sure *was* talking about roads and bridges.
This is such a simple and obvious observation that it’s amazing to me it’s become any sort of flashpoint. Even Mitt Romney agrees with it, for God’s sake.
Boy that was a dumb thing to say. I can’t believe Obama copied it.
It is obvious what was said and that no one was insulted except my intelligence after the fact by right wing slime machines. I am not discussing this stupidity anymore. I know that I am voting the Democrat Ticket this fall and no amount of faux outrage is changing that.
I’m bored by this.
That’s not an accurate video of Elizabeth Warren saying “nobody got rich on their own”. That video was made by an opposition tracker who did not have a microphone. The audio was digitally enhanced to to make it clearer and louder, which also made Elizabeth sound angry. I also think that it is sped up slightly. As a result, the quality of the image is poor.
Basically, it’s a professional distortion of Elizabeth Warren.
I don’t think it was a tracker who shot the original video. I think it was someone attending the house party at which Warren made her now-famous comments.
But you may well be right about the altered video.
The version I first saw is on youtube. The audio and video seems the same to me.
Elizabeth Warren DID sound angry, I LIKE that. I prefer her honest anger to Scott Brown’s oily Eddie Haskel deceit.
Text of Scott Brown’s latest ad:
H/T R.Eno
…Obama gave a speech to the VFW in which he talked about how great America is.
On the same editorial page where they called the first African American President of the United States a “man-child”;
http://www.eagletribune.com/opinion/x1289991836/Column-Entrepreneurs-not-politicians-build-the-nations-prosperity
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/07/18/report-fox-news-spends-two-plus-hours-distortin/187202
At one time we had “public servants” in the government. Now, apparently they’ve all turned into politicians.
It’s part of a conservative plot to undermine government.