‘Somebody else’ and Obama’s concept of how the world works
A pair of four-word phrases are proving unshakable for the Obama campaign.
The first is a line Obama actually spoke last month in Virginia: “You didn’t build that.” The second is the implication in a new advertisement by Obama’s super PAC that attacks Mitt Romney’s corporate past: Romney killed a lady.
Taken together, they reflect the president’s apparent belief that the good things as well as the bad things in our lives — success and failure, joy and tragedy, growth and death — are the products of forces beyond our control that only government can bring to heel. Unless you’re rich, in which case you didn’t do the good things in your life, just the bad things in others’.
“You didn’t build that” has been making the rounds for weeks now. The full line — “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that” — came amid a laundry list of ways in which, according to Obama, the successful should play down their own success. It wasn’t because you were smart or hard-working; Obama said “a lot of smart people,” a “whole bunch of hard-working people” weren’t so rewarded. Chalk it up to “a great teacher … this unbelievable American system … roads and bridges … government research [that] created the Internet.”
In short: “Somebody else made that happen.”
The speech resonated with the public, but not the way Obama intended. It resonated negatively, and not because successful people don’t acknowledge those who helped them along the way. Of course they do.
It resonated negatively because Obama focused exclusively on the collective. No acknowledgments of the ways successful people differentiate themselves, much less the government-imposed obstacles many of them overcome. Just a brief nod to “individual initiative” while bowing to the greater number of things “we do … together.”
It resonated negatively with a public that has become accustomed to hearing Obama talk about success almost always in the passive voice: It happens to people “who’ve been most fortunate” and who “have been incredibly blessed.” By, one can only guess, “somebody else.”
The attack on Romney is fresher. It arose in a video ad by Obama’s super PAC, in which a man who once worked for a company bought by Romney’s Bain Capital essentially blames Romney for his wife’s death from cancer.
The man, Joe Soptic, worked for GST Steel in Kansas City, which Bain bought in 1993. In 1999, Romney left Bain. In 2001, GST Steel closed its doors and Soptic lost his job and his health insurance. “A short time ater that,” Soptic says in the video, his wife was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. She died within weeks.
It’s a tragic story, but the ad omits a few details. First, that Soptic’s wife still had a job and health insurance until 2002 or 2003. Second, that her diagnosis and death were in 2006, five years after Soptic lost his job.
Amazingly, the ad isn’t even an attempt to justify Obamacare. It’s just a crude attempt to put blood on Romney’s hands.
Although an Obama spokeswoman initially denied knowing Soptic’s story, claiming the campaign is insulated from the super PAC, a recording of a conference call from this spring reveals the very same spokeswoman talking with Soptic about his story. The Obama campaign has also run its own ad with Soptic, depicting him wearing the very same shirt (see photos on left).
But maybe we shouldn’t blame her or the campaign for that little fib. After all, in Obama’s America, only the super-successful could be responsible for something bad. Somebody else, I’m sure, made that happen.
– By Kyle Wingfield
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
419 comments Add your comment
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:06 pm
Tomorrow’s Saturday ain’t it?
You mean, it isn’t Sunday?? Ooops, need to save the sermons for later, then……
I’ve been preaching all night looking for you, HD. Somehow, I think you share Dusty’s and Reporter’s viewpoint that it’s all pretty simple. I must be the only one trying to make it so complicated………
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:07 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxN1lECjHAc
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:07 pm
Hillbilly D,
I was wondering because of your roots in Georgia but that explains it.
RC been drinking that swill he pushes again.
Tomorrow is Saturday.
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:07 pm
Aw, I couldn’t load it, Bruno. Tell me the name & maybe I remember or can find it elsewhere.
I dedicated “Show Me the Way” by Styx to you.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:08 pm
Bruno,
Are you studying theology for the meaning of life ?
RW-(the original)
August 10th, 2012
10:10 pm
Did Mitt close down a shirt factory and retail store so old Joe could only acquire one shirt? I wonder how much being a union stooge in commercials pays.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
10:10 pm
Bruno- Exactly. Don’t ask the fellow sinner, ask the Lord.
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:11 pm
Back at ya, HD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhcJWQmKVGk&feature=related
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:13 pm
Somehow, I think you share Dusty’s and Reporter’s viewpoint that it’s all pretty simple.
Since you asked, I think it’s complicated; too complicated for mortal minds to comprehend. So I trust in Him to show where I need to go and to look out for me, when I don’t have sense enough to do it myself. As much as humans like to think they’re in control, they’re not and sooner or later, we all get to see that first hand. It’s actually kind of liberating when it happens.
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
10:14 pm
RW,
I wanted to be sympathetic to the man for having lost his wife. But that was 6 years ago and 5 years after he left Bain. So its pretty obvious this man had no problem going before a camera and just telling a huge, bald faced effing lie. Hard to sympathize with that.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:15 pm
RW,
Old Joe ?
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:16 pm
Oh, the ad.
Forgot about the topic.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
10:16 pm
Even the Bible simplifies it for you-
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
New International Version (NIV)
The Offer of Life or Death
11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
He who seeks shall find.
G Mare
August 10th, 2012
10:17 pm
Found the lyrics. Thanks, Bruno.
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:18 pm
Yes. Tomorrow is Saturday which is the Sabbath of course.
Whenever I think of Doom and Sabbath in the same thought, this comes to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqy4DTHGqg
Doom–Please tell josef to come on by.
RW-(the original)
August 10th, 2012
10:19 pm
Forgot about the topic.
What kind of blog nanny forgets the topic? Just kidding getalife, I guess I forgot you share something else with Joe.
barking frog
August 10th, 2012
10:20 pm
Nothing is simple. Simply
nothing. Believe in nothing
and live simply live.
Dusty
August 10th, 2012
10:20 pm
That’s just it, BRUNO
You get to piddling with the details such as who instigated the testing of Job. The whole story was one of strong faith and explained in great detail. Also, the Buddist had nothing on the story of Job that Job’s friends did not exemplify. The “friends” & wife consistently told Job he was being punished for sin when he said steadfastly that he had not sinned. So the Buddist, like everyone else, decided this HAD to be punishment. Even trying to implicate Job’s children but this was not a story of Job’s children but Job alone.
But that goes to prove the point of faith. JOb KNEW he had not sinned and did not understand his suffering but he knew it could not be punishment. So he did not lose his faith in God even if he did not understand.
As to replacement, I believe replace means to put in place what has been removed. It does not signify whether by happiness or unhappiness. It just means Job had a family once again.
I”m afraid you are looking for “loopholes” to justify your lack of belief. But faith means belief beyond our understanding. As you well know, it takes a strong faith to overcome the “loopholes” and tragedies of life. Job had it.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:22 pm
The only ads they ran down here so far is the one with robme singing (hate that one) and the positive one with our President saying we have a choice to make. I like that one.
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:22 pm
Are you studying theology for the meaning of life ?
Lay it on us, get. You’ve seen the other side already.
Since you asked, I think it’s complicated; too complicated for mortal minds to comprehend. So I trust in Him to show where I need to go and to look out for me, when I don’t have sense enough to do it myself.
Actually, HD, I was being a bit tongue in cheek. Still waters run deep.
Out of curiosity, how are we supposed to tell when it’s the other guy whispering in our ears, the Evil One??
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:24 pm
Wassup Bruno?
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:25 pm
RW,
I broke the rules because we are supposed to opine on the subject.
My bad.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:25 pm
Just for you Bruno. Don’t follow the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeCczUfCcsU
RW-(the original)
August 10th, 2012
10:25 pm
getalife,
I like the “you have a choice ad” too. A Steelers Wheel song that I’m sure one of the youtube zombies can find comes to mind.
barking frog
August 10th, 2012
10:27 pm
getalife
stay away from the sinkhole.
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
10:28 pm
Bruno,
I’ll let him josef know- matter of fact I’ll check now to see if he’s on and let him know every time I see him to give you a shout out if you’re on at the same time. Nowadays he’s back in school of course so we don’t see him till 4ish.
Nice one with Oscar Osbourne and the gang. Doomy do like his metal he do. But here’s one that may be even more poignant seeing as how we’re discussing the real Sabbath day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkYCAnDmb2g
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:28 pm
The steel guitar break in this, between the 4:00 and 5:00 mark is as good as it gets. None of the Nashville A-listers had a thing on Toy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQqXxW470KM
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:28 pm
HillbillyD you still here? You asked a question right before Kyle pulled the plug a week or so ago and then I went on vacation so I never saw the answer.
Who WAS the last Georgia Governor that didn’t increase their wealth while in office? I guessed Zig Zag Zell,…………..
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:29 pm
Alright, Fred’s in the house. Now the real party can start…..
But faith means belief beyond our understanding.
Dusty–I may surprise you one day with my true beliefs……
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:30 pm
Bruno,
The meaning of life is what you want it to mean. It is all about choices you make in your life.
I am not a big believer and don’t do organized religion but have no problem with any religion.
I think religion is great to pull people out of the dark ages but don’t like the killing in the name of religion. That has to be the ultimate sin.
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:30 pm
Fred
Ol’ Zell did quite well for himself; remember “Shirley’s little bank”?
Carl Sanders and George Dekle Busbee probably made out the best.
The answer is ……..Lester Maddox. He left office with a lower net worth than he went in with.
barking frog
August 10th, 2012
10:31 pm
It is a great time to be in the
t.v. business. Lie or truth
the media gets paid the
same and are free from
blame.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:31 pm
HillbillyD: My fav MTB song may be this one……. played it in one of the first bands I ever played in. I used my keys for the flute lead at the beginning (synthesizer) and then just jammed the hell out of the piano for the rest with the synth again on the organ parts…….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCXQycyN_Vs
Dusty
August 10th, 2012
10:33 pm
RW
R U here? I hope you stay right through the week and quit running off. Besides, these “crazy” people want to play music all the time and I might have to ask you to play…..ready…..the Viking Kitties!! That’ll teach ‘em.
Did you notice the Braves won again tonight? Love those fellows!
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:33 pm
Heck yeah Bruno, let’s start the party with this classic……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8
LMFAO………
PlatinumBlack
August 10th, 2012
10:34 pm
Heard it was rockin’ in here. Have to throw in a bit of Jim for my babe:
C’mon c’mon c’mon c’mon c’mon c’mon:
http://youtu.be/PECk9A-07Pw
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:35 pm
Out of curiosity, how are we supposed to tell when it’s the other guy whispering in our ears, the Evil One??
You have to ask Him for help with that one. If one asks for it, one will get it. Satan is treacherous and knows we’re easily fooled. He knows the weaknesses of each and every one of us. We need help to fight that but it’s there if we’re open to it.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:35 pm
frog,
They will not let you near that thing because it reeks of butane.
When you see bubbles in the bayou, it is probably a gator or a good place to drill natural gas.
The drillers are going to dive in that sinkhole to see what it is. It will take 40 days and the people that are evacuated said hurry up so they can come home.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:36 pm
A song just for Dusty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pHtqkoMR-k
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:37 pm
Fred
There’s not hardly a bad Marshall Tucker song and many a great one. Of course, Patti Smith is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they’re not. What a joke. Those guys were actual musicians. They dabbled in country, rock, blues, jazz, R&B, and western swing. They were easily the most versatile of the Southern rock bands, for my money.
barking frog
August 10th, 2012
10:38 pm
getalife
sounds like a mess.
Dusty
August 10th, 2012
10:38 pm
Bruno,
I’d love to hear your true beliefs. What is this you have been telling us? Bait for debate?
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:38 pm
When they wanted to play stone country, they could do that too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H67TJZMc4tI
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:39 pm
Enjoyed Rush @ 10:25, Fred.
Back at my baby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EapcVSB7U4U
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:40 pm
So is Platinum Black the female friend of yours Bruno? I think I heard rumors to that effect……. if so PB here’s a song for you…… pretty little girl with the red dress on……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pHtqkoMR-k
I get to know you better and I’ll post the BEST Doors tune for you lol.
Old Timer
August 10th, 2012
10:40 pm
When you go to the polls in Novermber, ask yourself–Am I better off now than I was four years ago? Answers from those on Obama’s new nearly permanent entitlement benefits do not count.. The curent TV attack ad’s by Obama’s campaign or sickening. Show no class and are like juvenile gutter talk.
RW-(the original)
August 10th, 2012
10:41 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pHtqkoMR-k
Hi Dusty,
The Braves were great tonight and I’d love to be around here more often, but if I understand the rules they severely restrict when you can and can’t post so it’s kind of pointless to bother with trying to figure out when comments are allowed.
Dusty
August 10th, 2012
10:41 pm
Hillbilly D,
I miss Zell, Saw a piece the other day about his health problems and he really has them. But there were no doubts about his convictions.
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:42 pm
Alright, we’ve got all the cool people over here tonight. We just passed the Bookman hit total for the night. Not that anyone’s counting or anything……
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:44 pm
if I understand the rules they severely restrict when you can and can’t post so it’s kind of pointless to bother with trying to figure out when comments are allowed.
RW–I think Kyle just banned some guy who was ruining it for everyone, and I think the night time blogging is open again.