Author Topic: Obama: No One Successful Made it on Their Own (Read 13167 times)

Ben · « **on:** July 15, 2012, 10:11:43 PM »

Obama insisting that there's no way to become successful without help:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/president-obama-if-youve-got-a-business-you-didnt-build-that-somebody-else-made-that-happen/

RoadKingLarry · « **Reply #1 on:** July 15, 2012, 10:13:29 PM »

More proof that Obama is more full of *expletive deleted*it than a Christmas turkey.

TommyGunn · « **Reply #2 on:** July 15, 2012, 10:40:03 PM »

I am sick and tired of this meme. Seems to me Clinton did this too, as well as a number of other demorats.
Obama has no highground on this matter.
I don't think he's ever even operated a lemonade stand.................................

Monkeyleg · « **Reply #3 on:** July 15, 2012, 10:51:08 PM »

When I started my first business (photo studio), local, state and federal government did innumerable things to make me want to give up. Until I hired an assistant in the third year, I did everything myself.

I can almost guarantee that the people who run around repeating this tired mantra have never run a business. It's just more justification to take money from those who've earned it and give it to those who haven't.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #4 on:** July 16, 2012, 12:21:17 AM »

He must be right. If success were the result of intelligence or hard work, Barack Obama would never have risen to the highest office in the land.

Unisaw · « **Reply #5 on:** July 16, 2012, 12:50:27 AM »

I think psychologists call Obama's statement projection.

AJ Dual · « **Reply #6 on:** July 16, 2012, 01:24:18 AM »

This has been a talking point of the Left for the past 1.5 years. Kind of peaked with the OWS crowd.

The idea being that you couldn't be a millionaire if it weren't for roads, pub schools, the military keeping whoever from invading us, and this somehow justifies ever higher progressive tax rates.

Of course, like so many of the Left's arguments, it's a typical straw-man fallacy.

They don't want to get into any kind of discussion of taxes paid vs. services consumed. Nor are they interested in hearing about the fact the person or business entity in question paid taxes commensurate to their income or holdings "on their way up".

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #7 on:** July 16, 2012, 01:40:37 AM »

Quote from: AJ Dual on July 16, 2012, 01:24:18 AM

This has been a talking point of the Left for the past 1.5 years. Kind of peaked with the OWS crowd.

The idea being that you couldn't be a millionaire if it weren't for roads, pub schools, the military keeping whoever from invading us, and this somehow justifies ever higher progressive tax rates.

Interesting how I use roads, and Mitt Romney uses roads, but I am not a millionaire. Interesting how public schooling is available to me and to 50 Cent, but I am not a millionaire. Interesting how Bill Gates and I both enjoy the benefits of national defense, a criminal justice system, and so on, yet I am not a millionaire.

Why, it's almost as if these people did something differently than I did, that allowed them to make more money than I make. Maybe they made different choices than I've made. Fascinating.

Monkeyleg · « **Reply #8 on:** July 16, 2012, 01:49:20 AM »

Y'know, it's funny that someone who takes credit for everything good that happens, from the killing of bin Laden to increased domestic oil production, won't allow that someone else did something himself.

brimic · « **Reply #9 on:** July 16, 2012, 09:49:37 AM »

Obama's argument is so very easy to pick apart...
Who paid for or will be paying for the bridges, roads, government services?

bedlamite · « **Reply #10 on:** July 16, 2012, 06:55:18 PM »

Spoken with the experience only a post turtle can have.

Tallpine · « **Reply #11 on:** July 16, 2012, 07:04:20 PM »

I guess it was just good luck that I studied my butt off in college and got better grades than everyone else

I told one of my professors that I cheated: I did my homework

I could be a lot more financially successfull right now if I moved to some hell-hole city and worked year around, but I choose to enjoy what years I may have left. I am pretty much to the point of "shrugging" and this latest crap from the Communist in Chief is good reason.

ArfinGreebly · « **Reply #12 on:** July 17, 2012, 03:43:32 PM »

A friend of mine, Citizen Scribe, had some remarks on this. Reproduced here with permission:

Quote

By: Citizen Scribe

While this has the potential to become quite contentious, permit me to offer a couple of points.

Some of my friends and I disagree a bit on the essence of the money quote, the "f you have a business, you didn't build that" thing. Their take is that he meant it as he said it. And my take is "yes, but…"

And here is my "yes but…"

The entire quote runs to about two paragraphs. It is clear that his meaning is that no one who succeeds can take all the credit for having succeeded, because the government made his success possible.

His semi-inarticulate blunder -- the money quote -- amounts to a Freudian slip of epic proportions.

Yeah, sure, he meant to say that those who built a business didn't build the roads and bridges, but what he really means -- under all the awkward wording -- is that you didn't build that. He goes on at length to make his "point" that without the government's help, without the government's having established all the infrastructure, you would have had nowhere to stand in order to accomplish your success. (He conveniently omits that every freeloading loser had that same infrastructure available.)

His "money quote" is the clearest, most succinct distillation of what he means here.

Yeah, he slipped up in trying to make the point, and gave his opponents a super clean sound bite, but that sound bite -- even with all its "out of context" framing -- is exactly what he meant.

The honest interpretation boils down to exactly that sound bite. It doesn't matter what his intended wording was, what he actually said is what he actually means.

And this goes deeper…

He's desperately trying to make the point that no one is responsible for his own success.

And why is that, Doktor Freud?

It's because he is not, himself, responsible for his own success.

He's a "made man." And not just figuratively speaking, either. He is an entirely manufactured phenomenon. There's no "there" there. He's a story, not a person.

A whole cadre of people collaborated to put him where he is. People of great means and evil intent financed him. People of letters and evil intent educated him. People with power to grab and an axe to grind propelled him. And none of this is unknown to him.

He knows he's a made man. He knows who made him.

And he can't interpret success through any other lens.

So, while I agree that he "meant" to say that a businessman didn't build the infrastructure, I also see clearly that he really means that no one who succeeds did it himself.

His money quote betrays him.

We need to hit this and hit it hard. It is his essence.

The money quote sound bite can be the intro, and a "summary clarification" can be made that he said two paragraphs of stuff, but the ultimate intent of his slam on business people and those who strive to succeed is embodied in that very quote.

Don't cut him any slack on this.

Couch it in whatever terms you must, but after you take the time to "clarify" the context, take that clarification all the way out: in the end, he said exactly what he means.

And he means it because it is an entirely and excruciatingly precisely accurate self-description.

He is that person about whom he speaks.

Make him own that.

Tallpine · « **Reply #13 on:** July 17, 2012, 04:26:36 PM »

Quote

he "meant" to say that a businessman didn't build the infrastructure

Actually, some businessmen (construction contractors) DID build the infrastructure

SADShooter · « **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2012, 04:32:22 PM »

Quote from: Tallpine on July 17, 2012, 04:26:36 PM

Actually, some businessmen (construction contractors) DID build the infrastructure

Yeah, but they couldn't have done it without inspectors, and permits, and the zoning commission, and union kickbacks....uh, wait....

Tallpine · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2012, 04:53:07 PM »

Quote from: SADShooter on July 17, 2012, 04:32:22 PM

Yeah, but they couldn't have done it without inspectors, and permits, and the zoning commission, and union kickbacks....uh, wait....

Don't forget OSHA and fuel taxes

SADShooter · « **Reply #16 on:** July 17, 2012, 05:31:27 PM »

If I was trying to hit the whole list I'd still be typing...

MrsSmith · « **Reply #17 on:** July 17, 2012, 05:54:29 PM »

Am I missing something here? Where did the gov get the money to build these roads and pay the salaries of these .gov employees? Taxes from the folks who didn't become successful on their own?

He has it all backward. All this great "success-building" infrastructure is here as a result of successful capitalists, entrepreneurs, and all the other folks who work (successfully) for a living.

Makes me want to slap the back of his head. Hard.

cassandra and sara's daddy · « **Reply #18 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:11:20 PM »

i had a kid tell me how lucky i was. i said he could get up at 3 am with me for the next 3 years and see if that changed his luck

Waitone · « **Reply #19 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:21:30 PM »

Quote

He's a "made man." And not just figuratively speaking, either. He is an entirely manufactured phenomenon. There's no "there" there. He's a story, not a person.

<quibble>"Made Man" implies he did something to be recognized by his affiliated group. I would prefer to use "Made Up Man"</quibble>