Posted on 07/21/2012 3:29:12 PM PDT by Kaslin
Checking for context before slamming someone for a single line in a speech is always a noble endeavor. But there’s a point when the “benefit of the doubt” becomes ridiculous. A prime example is the liberal argument that President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment wasn’t directed at businesses:
When he made the comment in Roanoke, Va. Friday, Obama was arguing that businesses needed infrastructure investment to succeed.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama said. “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 antecedent to “that” is not the business, but “roads and bridges,” as well as the “American system” as a whole.
To believe that Obama was talking about businesses, you only have to watch his speech in context and take it at its literal meaning. To believe Obama was talking about something else, you have to divine certain messages from his ambiguous body language, assume he mixed up his demonstrative pronouns, and concede that the context was structured oddly. Even then, it isn’t clear what exactly he’s referring to.
How could this be, considering he’s supposed to be one of the world’s most celebrated orators? The answer is, no teleprompter:
Judging from video and photos of the event, Obama wasn’t using his teleprompter. According to the video footage posted below, Obama pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his front shirt pocket at the beginning of his speech, and slowly unfolded it. Throughout the speech, Obama glances down at his sheet of paper, rather than the usual mechanical side-to-side head turns from screen to screen.
Wide-angle photos of the event show no sign of the familiar twin-screens that typically follow Obama everywhere. Instead, a white sheet of paper is seen at the podium.
No wonder the speech was such a train wreck, and I’m not just talking about the most controversial line. Here’s a key excerpt:
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 own a business — that, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Iternet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
Stilted, flat, unimaginative and full of banal observations. “Imagine if everybody had their own fire service,” he said at one point. “That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.” Really? It actually sounds like firefighting would be pretty easy if America had 300 million fire services. Not that this is physically possible, or that anybody has ever proposed such a thing. “Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet,” he added. The idea that the government created the Internet to help companies make money is so obviously inaccurate that it’s not even worth discussing. And what does any of this have to do with raising federal income taxes?
For the past four years, liberals have tried to sell us on the idea that Obama is one of the greatest speakers of all time. Now they’re complaining that conservatives are taking his words literally and not cutting him enough slack. Which one is it?
There's no denying that, but why he would want to impose such a system on us is the question. It's like he picked up the wrong lessons from somebody.
I hope everybody nows that once this guy is booted out of government he's still going to be around for the far Leftwingtards to use.
President Bush’s address to the joint session of Congress on 9/20/01 is one of the best political speeches I have ever heard, by anyone.
Also, Obama has a talent for mimicking conservative phraseology when it serves his purpose. His shell game with words seems to lull voters to sleep. On occasion, however, his mask slips, and his revolutionary venom pours out.
This last week's provocations do seem to have evoked some real anger--hell, even Romney sounded pissed off! Let's hope the light is beginning to shine in the mushy moderates' heads.
Actually, Obama was referring to “bridges,” not “businesses.”
But he’s the one who garbled the sentence, and since when have the Marxists ever failed to seize on the worst possible interpretation of any conservative’s ambiguous statement?
To all those who are blasting Obama for saying “...if you have a business, you didn’t build that...”—Keep it up!
Why has no prominent GOP person highlighted the fact that all of Obama’s references in this screed, save the internet stupidity, involve the workings of state and local govt. Since the days of Barry Goldwater the conservative movement in America has stoutly advanced the cause of local govt and federalism. It would be simple to coopt Obama’s ideas that govt provides services essential for society.But that it’s local govt that creates the conditions for business success.The GOP can do this and still forcefully attack the Leviathan we call the federal govt. In fact it makes the attack more viable as it would remove the meme that the right is anti govt.
Obama speaks from personal experience. He, himself, has NEVER earned anything or achieved anything on his own. He spent his lifetime bleeding the “token” system. For that reason, alone, he has had no personal experience in actually earning something himself. He actually believes what he is saying because this is the world he lives in. This is also why he says foolish things about “special olympics” etc. While the rest of us have had political correctness ingrained in us, he - as a minority - has been exempt from having to use tact while speaking. While many minority men and women have earned what they have through hard work, Obama is simply not one of them.
President Bush’s voice was pleasant to listen too.
BTTT!!!
IMO, Obama was referring to the roads and bridges, à la Elizabeth Warren’s “You brought your goods to market on roads other people built and paid for”. He cribbed it from her. Both are guilty of silly reductionist thinking. As one commenter said, “Well, DUH! We all stand on the shoulders of preceding generations. That’s not news to anyone.”
Early on people were missing the cribbing from Lizzie Warren. Now I think people have got that point down.
The other point is listen to the crowd noise during the speech. The crowd is clearly egging him on with the usual “Uh-huhs” and “you tell its” and that sort of thing. I think he made the amateur mistake of getting caught up in the (negative) energy of the crowd. I don’t think this point has been made, maybe at all.
You can also hear him dropping his “g”s at the ends of words obviously playing to the crowd and trying to sound more authentic. What a putz.
He should speak offTELEPOTUS more often.
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