Check out Mitt, beginning at the 1:40 mark of his speech. Highly entertaining.
Oops.
Romney’s 2002 Olympic Ceremony Speech
johnk
| Wed, Jul 25, 2012
9:02 AM EST
Spoiler: "You Olympians, however, know that you didn't get here solely on your own power." You had lots of help, including from "communities that built venues" - i.e., government. Fancy that. - promoted by david
Recommended by methuenprogressive, somervilletom.
Discuss
25 Comments . Leave a comment below.He’s not yelling or shaking a finger like Warren did, or using a argumentative tone like Obama. I doubt the athletes were offended by Romney thanking their families and communities. They weren’t being told they were all selfish and anyone could have done it just as well.
I’m reminded of the Jesse Eisenberg character in The Squid and The Whale, who justifies passing off Pink Floyd’s Hey You as his own composition in the talent show because he felt “like he could have written it.” It’s a liberal jealousy and refusal to accept that some people deserve respect and success for things they actually did and responsibility they took on. Obama and warren come across like Napster users feeling entitled to Metallica songs, because they wrote them and recorded them on machines other people made.
OMG, I cringe watching Warren point her finger, as if I’m some freshman in her classroom who forgot to bring a text book. Not good, not good.
See, the difference is that there wasn’t a national party trying to undercut the ability of the athletes’ communities to support them. Whereas, if the GOP has its way, business in this country will suffer terribly because, over the medium to long term, publicly-supported infrastructure and education (among other things) will deteriorate.
not at business owners and rich people across the board, many of whom might be Democrats, or might have been before they were so severely disrespected.
Nobody is disrespecting business owners, other than national Republicans who evidently think that business owners are so stupid that they’ll fall for this kind of crap.
Disrespect of owners is the intellectual foundation of the whole occupy movement. Anyone who is an owner or a landlord is spat on by them, not just the rich people in the 1%
grow up.
Direct the anger at the Libertarians in the GOP and the Democratic Party too, not the social conservatives in the GOP who understand the need for infrastructure.
And I think this is an important point you didn’t address: “I doubt the athletes were offended by Romney thanking their families and communities. They weren’t being told they were all selfish and anyone could have done it just as well.” Do you see that sentiment is only in Obama’s “there are lots of smart people” insult? There was no insult in Romney’s speech. Romney wasn’t saying that anyone could have done it and all the credit should go to the government, he was merely reminding everyone to appreciate the communities and families that support them in their training.
It’s an argument on why the 1% should have higher taxes. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Who should pay higher taxes to help pay for this? How about the people who reap the most benefit from this infrastructure?
There was no insult in Obama’s speech. Obama never said “anyone could have done it”, nor does “all the credit go to the government”. He was merely reminding everybody that their work does not stand in a vacuum — it is reliant on infrastructure (both physical and social), and that is why the ultra-rich should pay more to shore up this infrastructure.
where’s Curley?
nyuk nyuk nyuk…
and have always been a big fan. Yes, I know, explains a lot…
my wife blames me.
These intemperate women who dare run for office! How dare they!
ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported in March, Romney, during his 2002 run for governor of Massachusetts, boasted of the more than $410 million he got from the feds to pull off a successful Games, which he described as a collaborative effort between the private sector and all levels of government:
As for his experience running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Romney said, “”the whole winter games was a combination of the federal, state and local governments along with private enterprise.”
“We actually received over $410 million from the federal government for the Olympic games. That is a huge increase over anything ever done before and we did that by going after every agency of government,” he says.
He even cites money one his colleagues managed to get for the Olympics from the Department of Education.
“She said, ‘Why don’t I get the Department of Education to buy tickets to the Paralympics so that high school and grade school kids can go to the Paralympics?’ She literally got, I believe the number was over $1 million from the Department of Education, funding to buy tickets for kids,” Romney said. “This way we got kids there and we also got additional revenues that we wouldn’t have had. That kind of creativity I want to bring to everything we do.”
In fact, many Occupiers are craftspeople, homeowners, small businessfolk – like me. We don’t spit on anyone, we are fighting the creation of a hereditary American aristocracy and dynastic stratification of great wealth – you know, a Romney dynasty, since corporations go on forever, are immortal, then the Romney Trust, the Walton Trust and corporations can ensure that their genetic lines are oh, like the Winsors of Britain…fighting a class system, and the planned evisceration of the yeomanry into serfs is not “spitting’ on owners – it is blockading and fighting back and speaking truth to the power of would be hereditary rulers in an entrenched class system. Very different.
but it shows that the speech was misdirected, because it sure was felt to be an attack on people who’ve gotten a small business off the ground and are successfully keeping it afloat, many of whom are liberals. This is the first I’ve heard that he meant the stratification of wealth in the hands of dynasties and an attack on trust funds. I don’t know if you want to be attacking all trust funds from parents though, that’d alienate lots of people, but an attack on extreme wealth concentration and anti-government beliefs is a good idea. It should be directed specifically at those Ayn Rand Libertarians who are literally building floating libertarian paradises out in the middle of the ocean like Peter Thiel, the Koch Brothers, Romney.
Thanks amberpaw for the explanation of occupy’s goals and how it is different from the message in the President’s speech. I think in my reply I was thinking that the President’s goals and Occupy goals ought to be the same but they can be different.
it wasn’t. It all a pretend issue. You just need to admit it.
You mentioned Romney, Waltons… but I assume you would include The Kennedy dynasty, John Forbes Kennedy dynasty, Rockefeller…
And are willing to steal from the rest of us (off shore tax shelters in my opinion are stealing from the public fisc and the well being of the country) – and extreme wealth concentration is feudalism, not capitalism, no matter what it calls itself. So extreme wealth concentration, impoverishment of the majority of folks due to class stratefication and wealth concentration in a dnastic predatory elite that only gives lip service to democracy. As to what President Obama meant to say or should say, I haven’t commented on that at all in part because I neither listened to nor read his speech. Some Occupiers are Democrats, some are Republicans, some are libertarians or socialists or greens or other tings, and some, just like George Washington, think all political parties are evil and defame the ideals from the time this country are founded and want no parties at all. Some stayed involved in Occupy, some left for party politics, some got disgusted or frightened or tired and are taking time out – some will be back, some not. It is not a monolithic, conformist sort of movement at all.
That is what I get if I don’t proof read before hitting that send button. Apologies!
Romney: “You Olympians, however, know that you didn’t get here solely on your own power.”
Does he have to diminish their sacrifice, their investment, their sweat… ? None of us would be here without our parents so do we all owe our success to our parents? Our computers wouldn’t work without electricity, power plants wouldn’t work without oil so do successful businesses owe their success to Exxon? Stop with the success precursors…
What a bunch of crap from Romney! Some guy/woman works hard to make the team, risks it all and makes it. HOW does that person get any help? The roads and the country infrastructure is available to all Americans as we all pay for it (at least the 50% of Americans who pay taxes). Somebody else helped them… get off it! Is it so hard to give people credit for making it? finding it? Discovering it? Inventor Ben Franklin… no biggie if out wasn’t for Archimedes of Syracuse. Can’t Romney see these American Olympians as doing it on their own?
Romney is missing the point about personal success and the initiative and desire which drives individuals. Dedicate your life, take that gamble and if you succeed then you did it. Be proud… I would be proud of you. But don’t confuse this working hard with a guy digging a ditch as working hard. The ditch digger is just labor. Hard work is over rated, I’ll take smart work over hard work any day!
Of course we are a nation and we do many things together. 911 is a great example of how we can come together when we have to. Sadly, it takes something as terrible as 911 to make this happen.
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Link to original post:
http://bluemassgroup.com/2012/07/why-does-obama-dislike-small-business-owners-so-much/
Dont you think there is a big difference between an Olympian who relied on parents to pay for private lessons, drive the kid to try puts and practices and competition, verses Obama and Warren equating a business persons success and the test of society being his/ her parents because of the roads being paved? Disgusting, isn’t it?
The post I linked to? Yes. Quite disgusting that “you people” think the electorate is stupid. “You people” should be ashamed of yourselves.
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