President claims that no one built a business on their own

[JJ Husker]

sd'sker- You are not paying attention to what I am actually saying. I never said Obama could not effectively lecture or teach. He is probably good as a lecturer considering he usually speaks rather well while giving campaign speeches. Also I never said liberalism was necessarily detrimental to a University. However I do believe it is detrimental to indoctrinate our youth with a primarily liberal message. Colleges are supposed to be a place for the free exchange of ideas, not a virtual brainwashing favoring one side of the spectrum. My point is that I believe our higher education system would be more beneficial if it were not so mired in left leaning ideology. My other point is that I don't care how well Obama may have been at lecturing. I am convinced that he was unable to present the more moderate and balanced approach of which I speak. In a nutshell, I am fed up with liberals. Period. I don't expect anyone who leans left to like my opinion but, I do not care if it offends somebody or not. I hope that makes it clear.

[carlfense]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/07/romney-obama-inventions-and-government-money.html?mobify=0

Romney followed up on this at a town hall on Wednesday: “To say what he said is to say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple Computer or that Bill Gates didn’t build Microsoft or that Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motor Company … This is the height of foolishness. It shows how out of touch he is with the character of America.”

But every one of the paragons of American capitalism that Romney named in fact benefitted from government intervention and support, both direct and indirect.

 

[tschu]

Well, for someone who has made it where he has because of affirmative action and white guilt, I can understand how this guy could believe that. But that's not the way things happen. If he had ever started up a business, he would know. Maybe he should ask his billionaire, tax-dodging friend Warren Buffett about that.

 

The problem with this country right now is not that we have ideological differences, it's that we not only allow ourselves to be led by the nose of those who would exaggerate those differences for their own gain, but we revel in it, and willingly, eagerly regurgitate it.

I've found that democrats and republicans generally agree on like 95% of things, but those 5% differences just get blown entirely out of proportion until it seems there is no common ground.

[zoogs]

I am still unsure about the point here. Was it supposed to be justification for why you ought to pay more taxes? Was it a controverted dig at the spirit of entrepreneurship? That's certainly what it's being painted as. I still am not sure why, out of the blue, President Obama decided to send the message that "Hey, business owners. You didn't do it on your own."

I think the point is to stake out the general positions of the parties before the election. Republicans are increasing becoming a party with a single simplistic message: government=bad. I see this as a response to that sort of message.

 

It's supposed to remind people that the government does do good, that we do rely on government services every day, etc.

 

Will that be successful? I don't know.

 

If that's all it is about - rhetoric - then it seems both flawed and disastrously ineffective.

[knapplc]

Well, for someone who has made it where he has because of affirmative action and white guilt, I can understand how this guy could believe that. But that's not the way things happen. If he had ever started up a business, he would know. Maybe he should ask his billionaire, tax-dodging friend Warren Buffett about that.

 

The problem with this country right now is not that we have ideological differences, it's that we not only allow ourselves to be led by the nose of those who would exaggerate those differences for their own gain, but we revel in it, and willingly, eagerly regurgitate it.

I've found that democrats and republicans generally agree on like 95% of things, but those 5% differences just get blown entirely out of proportion until it seems there is no common ground.

 

You're right, but I'll take it one step further - most humans aren't "Democrats" or "Republicans," they're just human. They want security. They want a job that gives them gainful employment. They want a roof over their head. They want the honorable notion of being capable of providing for their family. They want food, clothes, and a semblance of "success" or "prosperity."

 

It's only when we get complacent, bored, fat and apathetic that we start to delve too deeply into the minutiae that separates "Democrat" from "Republican."

 

Further, I've found that, the more I discuss stuff with people outside America, including Iranians, Frenchmen, Israelis, Greeks, Serbs, Croats, Russians, Germans, English, Mexicans, Californians, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and probably a few other nationalities I'm not thinking of off the top of my head, the more I realize these people can't be separated into "socialists" or "communists" or whatever label you want to put on them. These are artificial labels that really, essentially, mean nothing. Everyone wants peace, they want security, they want a safe place to sleep at night. That's all they want.

 

Those talks, over the course of a few years, really clued me in to what it means to be human. We're not different. We live in different places, we think (slightly) different thoughts, but overall, people are people.

 

All this rhetoric is just... stupid.

[sd'sker]

sd'sker- You are not paying attention to what I am actually saying. I never said Obama could not effectively lecture or teach. He is probably good as a lecturer considering he usually speaks rather well while giving campaign speeches. Also I never said liberalism was necessarily detrimental to a University. However I do believe it is detrimental to indoctrinate our youth with a primarily liberal message. Colleges are supposed to be a place for the free exchange of ideas, not a virtual brainwashing favoring one side of the spectrum. My point is that I believe our higher education system would be more beneficial if it were not so mired in left leaning ideology. My other point is that I don't care how well Obama may have been at lecturing. I am convinced that he was unable to present the more moderate and balanced approach of which I speak. In a nutshell, I am fed up with liberals. Period. I don't expect anyone who leans left to like my opinion but, I do not care if it offends somebody or not. I hope that makes it clear.

this is just some talking point you are buying into without any reason to believe it. you also believe that no one who claims to lean left could ever teach in such a way as the students would be unaware of the leanings. a person can be objective, impartial, and unbiased as a professional and hold other views personally. you seem unwilling to believe this because it is averse to your worldview. also, in my experience in college it was the liberals who were more open-minded and the conservatives who could not recognize their own biases and narrow-mindedness. to them, being right and agreeing with them was synonymous. not that i would use my experiences to generalize all higher education institutions.

[bshirt]

THE PRESIDENT: No, no, look -- I mean, we’re having a good, healthy, democratic debate. That’s how this works. And on their side, they’ve got a basic theory about how you grow the economy. And the theory is very simple: They think that the economy grows from the top down. So their basic theory is, if wealthy investors are doing well then everybody does well. So if we spend trillions of dollars on more tax cuts mostly for the wealthy, that that’s somehow going to create jobs, even if we have to pay for it by gutting education and gutting job-training programs and gutting transportation projects, and maybe even seeing middle-class folks have a higher tax burden.

 

What an obtuse fool. Yeah sure Obama, the private sector doesn't create jobs...government does. I love how Obama says that education, one of the most sacred liberal cows, will possibly be gutted to pay for "tax cuts for the wealthy." Standard liberal boilerplate garbage. Education spending overall has trended upwards for the past 30 years.

 

More tax cuts for those at the top.

 

More standard liberal boilerplate garbage: class warfare, envy, and resentment.

 

 

They’ve got the tax cuts for the high end, and they’ve got rollback regulation.Now, here’s the problem. You may have guessed -- we tried this. We tried this in the last decade and it did not work. But I just want to point out that we tried their theory for almost 10 years, and here’s what it got us: We got the slowest job growth in decades.

 

So I guess 8+ % unemployment has always been the case? Oh wait, that's just under your idiotic administration.

 

We got deficits as far as the eye can see. And it culminated in a crisis because there weren’t enough regulations on Wall Street and they could make reckless bets with other people’s money that resulted in this financial crisis, and you had to foot the bill.

 

Yes and your ridiculous bailout contributed to more debt in two years than Bush II had in 8. It's amazing that somehow Barck sees his party's as completely blameless for the current economic situation. It takes a special kind of fool to be such a dullard. We had to "foot the bill" because you and your party are complete imbeciles when it comes to sound economic fiscal policy.

 

And I had to stop reading there because it's just too much idiocy to handle.

 

 

 

The screaming liberal policy of "a welfare check in every mail box" sounds down-right fine until the money runs out. Also agree the

(small) child-like idiocy is way, wayyyyyy too much to handle. Let them stay in their dream bubble fantasy world where the productive exist only to serve the lazy, stupid and entitled.

[knapplc]

The screaming liberal policy of "a welfare check in every mail box" sounds down-right fine until the money runs out. Also agree the

(small) child-like idiocy is way, wayyyyyy too much to handle. Let them stay in their dream bubble fantasy world where the productive exist only to serve the lazy, stupid and entitled.

 

 

This is exactly what is hurting this country right now - not that we disagree, but that so many people are so willing to buy into and regurgitate these caricature-like representations of "them." I don't care whether you're liberal or conservative or moderate or whatever - just think before you talk like this. Please.

[zoogs]

+1 +1 +1 +1

 

Not everything is a fight. Put the swords down.

[carlfense]

6 days after the meltdown over Obama's statement . . . and wouldn't you know it?! Romney now agrees with him. I expect much gnashing of teeth and outrage from Fox News over this anti-capitalist message from Mitt:

choolteachers, firefighters, people who build roads. We need those things. We value schoolteachers, firefighters, people who build roads. You really couldn’t have a business if you didn’t have those things . . .

 

http://www.buzzfeed....rently-agreeing

[zoogs]

It seems pretty disingenuous to suggest that Romney agrees with him, given that was from a speech where he acknowledges the importance of those people, in the greater and more meaningful context of disagreeing completely with the overall message.

 

This is a lot of bandying about of empty and ultimately meaningless rhetoric, in my opinion, but President Obama initiated this particular rhetoric war and I don't understand it. There are so many other ways he could have sent a message of 'unity' or 'we're in this together' than to blatantly appeal to the silly and divisive '1% vs 99%' sentiment.

[carlfense]

It seems pretty disingenuous to suggest that Romney agrees with him, given that was from a speech where he acknowledges the importance of those people, in the greater and more meaningful context of disagreeing completely with the overall message.

It is absolutely disingenuous. That was the intent . . . just like the creative editing in the Romney ad.

[zoogs]

Oh - that point went over my head, heh I did think you were better than that, glad you proved me right.

[carlfense]

Partisan "magic words."

Conservatives like Santorum and Sarah Palin hear these magic words right away. Mitt Romney doesn’t. It’s a minor but important reason why conservatives still hardly trust him. How can he run against Obama if he says the Fundamental Transformer is a “good man?” Doesn’t he get that this election is about radicalism versus the possible eradication of freedom? This week, they got him to listen.

Good read from Slate. They cover the Democratic partisans "magic words" gaffes during the Bush years as well. This is as good of a summary of this fake controversy as I have seen so far.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/07/when_barack_obama_said_you_didn_t_build_that_conservative_partisans_quickly_turned_it_into_a_gaffe_for_the_romney_campaign_to_use_against_the_president_.html

[carlfense]

Why does Romney hate athletes?

"You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power,” said Romney.

http://firstread.msn....utmcsr=(direct)