‘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
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419 comments Add your comment
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:44 pm
HBD: Here’s another great Country rocker. And after this i’ll lay down a more “modern” one. LOL Modern in the sense that he was 20 years after MTB and Charlie Daniels……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4y5si8DGs
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:44 pm
RW
Kyle usually puts us to bed around 7 weeknights but he usually lets us stay up late on the weekends. As long as folks behave, that is. Seems like every time he tries to let us stay up late during the week, the problem kids have to keep asking for water and stuff and ruin it for the good kids.
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:47 pm
Fred
I saw Charlie at the DeKalb College Gym back in the mid 70’s. This was one of the highlights of what was an excellent show. One of the better shows I’ve ever seen, no matter the genre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guPG4DWXnRM
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
10:47 pm
Bruno,
Naw. I’m not counting either. Not at all. Wasn’t even curious.
I didn’t realize Kyle loosened it up after 7 pm. I guess he wanted to give a discussion topic for the weekend.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:47 pm
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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nice talk radio speak pal but I’ll play. 4 years ago my family income was right at $190000 a year. Today it’s over one quarter of a million dollars. That’s $250,000 in case you can’t figure that out. I payed less than 9% in income tax.
I’m missing your point. Do you even have one? Did Rush or Neal tell you what the point was supposed to be?
InAtl
August 10th, 2012
10:47 pm
Sheesh Louise says: “Oh well, I guess I have to…
“..somebody invested in ROADS and BRIDGES. If you got a business…THAT…you didn’t build that!”
What’s sad is that liberals like Louise don’t understand that when most people listen to the entire speech, they still get the same message from Obama that Kyle summarizes here. Obama thinks government is what makes America great, not American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
10:48 pm
Alright, alright
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhwwCWkmYoc&feature=related
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:49 pm
Dusty
I wish Zell no ill will and am sorry he has health problems but most of the folks that I know, who’ve known him since his college days have a lower opinion of him, than you do. He’s always been as changeable as the wind. That’s how he got his nickname.
Sorry to spoil the mood, back to the fun.
InAtl
August 10th, 2012
10:50 pm
Fred, you’re very condescending, but I’m sure even you must realize that if what you’re saying is true, you’re the exception; not the rule. And BTW, it’s “paid – not “payed.” I guess income doesn’t equate to English skills.
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:52 pm
I’ll play this one for Bruno
The girls on the harmony can really wail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kly8JiGjWfY&feature=relmfu
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
10:52 pm
So is Platinum Black the female friend of yours Bruno? I think I heard rumors to that effect…
She’s the one, Fred. A dream come true……
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:53 pm
HBD: Great tune. I had never heard that one before. Here is the one I promised earlier. You’ll have to wait for it though until I’m done listening to Caballo Diablo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEJzoaYZk
@@
August 10th, 2012
10:53 pm
Bruno:
I’m gonna share one of the two epiphanies I’ve experienced in my lifetime.
My first was when I struggled to control all things…right all wrongs. The epiphany?
I was standing in front of a full length mirror with satan standing behind me. I needed to have a closer relationship with God. When I looked in the mirror, I saw what was standing in my way…between he and I. It was me…my reflection. Once I realized that, Satan was no longer behind me. God was in front of me, leading the way.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
10:54 pm
And then they went and they voted you
Least likely to succeed
I had to tell them baby you were armed with all you’d need
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbixKDRxIz0
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
10:54 pm
Old timer,
The economy is better off than 4 years ago 2008 which in which case we were in fact in a recession and bleeding jobs. Now if you ask is the economy doing better than 6-10 years ago then that’s a whole different story. In terms of unemployment and growth the empirical evidence is clear- we were better off during the W years except for the last 2 years when the recession hit.
jconservative
August 10th, 2012
10:54 pm
“The speech resonated with the public, but not the way Obama intended. It resonated negatively,”
Maybe with a minority but not with the majority.
Obama is still ahead in the realcclearpolitics poll average and in 10 of 12 “battleground” state polls. This is not the issue. And writing columns about it will not make it the issue. The “choir” agrees with Kyle, but the choir is only 47% of the vote.
.
The issue is Romney and his taxes and offshore millions in offshore bank accounts. And he keeps on keeping them secret. Until he releases the tax returns he is on track for a November defeat.
Today the election is about Romney and not about the Obama record. That in itself is a stunning development.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:55 pm
I report: That is without a doubt one of my FAVORITE Stones songs.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
10:55 pm
It is a combo deal.
During the great Clinton years, government invented the Internet and private companies invested.
Boom, a booming economy.
We did it before and can do it again.
Yes, we can.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
10:57 pm
InAtl
August 10th, 2012
10:50 pm
Fred, you’re very condescending, but I’m sure even you must realize that if what you’re saying is true, you’re the exception; not the rule. And BTW, it’s “paid – not “payed.” I guess income doesn’t equate to English skills.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There ya go. You found a typo so that makes you a God.
Really? Is THAT all you have?
What a dumb ass.
barking frog
August 10th, 2012
10:57 pm
getalife
Forward!
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
10:59 pm
The economy may be better some places and for some folks but it’s not gotten any better in my neck of the woods and probably isn’t going to, anytime soon.
Funny thing, though, those folks that were using the local banks as personal piggy banks for them and their developer buddies, oh they’ve taken a bit of a hit, but they’ve all still got their big houses and are driving their MB’s. The banks bellied up and a whole lot of the little people lost out. I guess that’s the way the world works.
Tall
August 10th, 2012
10:59 pm
…”Sometimes….I wish I didn’t care…..” Kevn Kinney
But I do….and it kills me…. It may be best if Obama does win. That consequences of that may finally lead to the implosion of the Democratic party once and for all.
Dusty
August 10th, 2012
11:00 pm
Well THANKS Fred and RW. for playing my old favorite.
For some reason, the Viking kitties look like they have been to battle. Kinda dark and pudgy. Don’t know what happened. I will have to find a new favorite….the Rasslin’ Raccoons or the Rhine River maidens or something.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
11:00 pm
This is a lib band but damned if they couldn’t hit it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcawnRIyeok
getalife
August 10th, 2012
11:01 pm
@@,
Never saw the devil.
What does he or she look like?
PlatinumBlack
August 10th, 2012
11:03 pm
Don’t mean to be redundant, but Reporter inspired me. Have to put this version up, dedicated to my babe. I love me some Sundays:
http://youtu.be/u9lEd5bIbbQ
getalife
August 10th, 2012
11:03 pm
frog,
I am bullish on America.
I think there are some good ole Clinton economies coming.
JKL2
August 10th, 2012
11:04 pm
Romney used to run a gay prostitution ring out Barney Frank’s basement. I know it’s true because Harry Reid’s friend called and told me it wass.
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
11:05 pm
I’m also doing much better than I was 4 years ago. But that’s just anecdotal. Plus it was because I just chose not to participate in the recession- not anything that O or anyone else did for me and dang sure not because they built me a road.
Fred you gotta watch it with calling someone a DA. Kyle will yank you in a nanosecond.
RW-(the original)
August 10th, 2012
11:05 pm
Seems like every time he tries to let us stay up late during the week, the problem kids have to keep asking for water and stuff and ruin it for the good kids.
HD,
The only way the “problem kids” on an open blog can be dealt with is the “good kids” possessing the ability to ignore them. Imposed “rules” by a host only feed to the “problem kids” and their ability to control the blog especially when the host lacks the resolve to actually enforce the supposed rules. Restricting hours is just a cop out.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
11:06 pm
Well Bruno, I can only link this song for you and you PB and hope it’s applicable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0iVE3Sw4E0&list=PLCDCDB62C7142D43C&index=13&feature=plpp_video
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
11:06 pm
JKL2,
I’m gonna have to steal that and use it next door some time if n you don’t mind.
JKL2
August 10th, 2012
11:07 pm
getalife- I think there are some good ole Clinton economies coming.
I didn’t know you were a Newt fan?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
11:07 pm
RW nails it!
Sox win!
Yes!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 10th, 2012
11:07 pm
White Sox, you punk Boston wnnabes
Dusty
August 10th, 2012
11:10 pm
Hillbilly .D.
I don’t doubt that Zell has his faults. But he surely could make a speech you could listen to.and not get bored. He didn’t make a bad governor as far as I could tell although I wasn’t too excited about the lottery. There must be a better way to find funds than gambling. I don’t like casinos either. Guess I’m just too stingy to have fun losing money.
RW-(the original)
August 10th, 2012
11:12 pm
White Sox, you punk Boston wnnabes
Comunsky Field must be rocking….
JKL2
August 10th, 2012
11:12 pm
thulsa- I’m gonna have to steal that and use it next door some time if n you don’t mind.
No problem. Been thinking about running a line of “Reid’s friend” quotes like they were doing those Thomas Jefferson ones for a while.
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
11:14 pm
Thanks for the song, HD.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
11:14 pm
jk,
It was the newt’s idea to shut down government and you lost then he decided to fight against a President after a collapse and will lose again.
I think the newt is a dem mole.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
11:15 pm
Fred you gotta watch it with calling someone a DA. Kyle will yank you in a nanosecond.
Thanks for the advise, but you know me. I mean really. I’ve been drinking since 2:00. First we went to The Grove and drank our way through the bronze medal round of the men’s olympic soccer (had 6 beers before I left home lol) and THEN we went to the Oasis where we drank up a $250 tab. And THEN some asshat wants to say some stupid crap because I typed payed instead of PAID? Really?
I thought I was kind and gentle in my response given the circumstances. I also am rather proud of my typing abilities since on top of all that I have had 6 beers since I got home.
As Doc Holiday said in that movie……. I have not yet begun to defile myself……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYVqzRvVapY
Bruno
August 10th, 2012
11:15 pm
Guess I’m just too stingy to have fun losing money.
I’m telling you, Dusty, you’d murder them on the crap table with your Scottish stinginess. No way you’re crapping out.
Any chance you have red hair?? A red-headed lady shooter never loses……
getalife
August 10th, 2012
11:16 pm
Reid said he snitch is a republican.
It is the newt again.
PlatinumBlack
August 10th, 2012
11:17 pm
THEN we went to the Oasis
Isn’t that a strip club? I think I used to go there (not to work)…
Thulsa Doom
August 10th, 2012
11:18 pm
JKL2,
A running line of Reid quotes similar to the thomas Jefferson nonsense? Oh man would that be hilarious. I’m in.
Hillbilly D
August 10th, 2012
11:19 pm
RW
That’s a valid point. On every one of these blogs, though, it seems like only half the equation gets booted. The ones who egg the offender on, always seem to skate. But it’s not my house, so it ain’t up to me.
Dusty
There’s always one thing that’s stuck in my craw about Zell, back the first time he ran for Lt Gov (and this can be verified by looking at newspapers of the time), he said Lt Gov was a useless office and if elected, he’d have the office abolished. So what did he do? He spent 4 terms, 16 years in that office and building himself a springboard for higher office.
As far as gambling, I’m not going to partake in it but if they’re going to have it, I don’t think the government should be involved in it. It’ll always end up like the lottery, they’ll spend every dime they take in and if the income increases, they’ll find a way to spend every bit of the increase. But nothing lasts forever and sooner or later, the income goes down for whatever reason. Then they’re screwed and guess who pays for it.
They never read about the 7 years of plenty and the 7 years of famine, I reckon.
JKL2
Dude, you might want to change your phone number, if that’s the kind of calls you’re getting.
getalife
August 10th, 2012
11:19 pm
Y’all are upsetting Dusty with those Chicago teams.
Our President is a White Sox fan.
Lynnie Gal
August 10th, 2012
11:20 pm
Obama’s comments about “you didn’t make that all by yourself” was taken out of context and you know it, Kyle. Fact is–no one makes it entirely on his/her own and that’s a fact. Try and dispute that. People who think they “made it” all on their own are truly conceited. They have no gratitude.
As far as the Joe Soptic commercial, it is a fact that he lost his job because of Bain Capital, with Romney at the helm whether he denies that fact or not. The man lost his insurance. That’s devastating. His wife had insurance from her employer and then lost that. She died without insurance. That is a fact. That is also a shame because no American should be dependent on having a job that has insurance in order to get health care for a serious illness. Americans should be able to get treatment for serious things like having a heart attack or stroke, or getting cancer–all without losing their homes if the insurance company decides not to pay enough. It’s a sick mind and soul that wants to deny people health care and the ability to get affordable health insurance. Joe Soptic simply told how he feels about losing his job and health insurance and then losing his wife.
SheeshLouise
August 10th, 2012
11:20 pm
@md
When you get a chance, how about doing some RESEARCH on our Federal Interstate Highway System. Specifically, go right to the ‘Interstate Funding’ section and get your fill:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/interstate.cfm
Come back and talk to us all after you GET A CLUE! Thanks.
Fred ™
August 10th, 2012
11:21 pm
PB: Yes it IS a strip club. Not a place I would choose to go to, but my friend likes it so I find myself there more than I wish. Oh well, he enjoys it and I find it better than a sharp stick in the eye so it’s not a real problem especially since he pays. I paid for the Grove lol.
Are you a big Doors fan or did you just play that tune earlier because it fit the bill?