SPIN METER: Obama's 'You didn't build that' echoes
By | Associated Press – 1 hr 3 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney says Barack Obama doesn't think entrepreneurs built their businesses. The problem is that's not what the president said.
The
brouhaha over Obama's comments on small-business success shows no sign
of fading and the president pushed back hard with new ads scheduled to
run in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Nevada in which
the president directly counters Romney's claims. Romney and his allies
continue to hammer Obama for comments taken wildly
out of context, pummeling the president as a government-obsessed figure
who thinks Washington gets the credit for the success of small
businesses.
That was not
Obama's point when he spoke in Virginia on July 13 about the
government's supportive role in providing a stable environment in which
businesses can thrive. Nor was it Romney's point when he used similar
phrasing in 2002 about Olympic athletes who benefited from supportive parents and coaches.
But in a campaign that makes facts secondary to a good attack, the context doesn't seem to matter.
"Those
ads taking my words about small business out of context? They're flat
out wrong," Obama says, looking into the camera and addressing voters in
the 30-second ad. "Of course Americans build their own businesses."
That is a tidier version of what Obama offered in Virginia.
"Look,
if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't
get there on your own," Obama said then. "I'm always struck by people
who think, 'Well, it must be because I was just so smart.' There are a
lot of smart people out there. 'It must be because I worked harder than
everybody else.' Let me tell you something: There are a whole bunch of
hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the
line gave you some help."
Obama
cited teachers and mentors who helped "create this unbelievable
American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody
invested in roads and bridges."
Then,
Obama teed up the line that left Republicans giddy. "If you've got a
business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The
Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the
Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet,"
Obama said, returning to his thesis.
"The point is, is that when we
succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also
because we do things together."
Romney and his allies pounced on the "you didn't build that" portion and ignored the rest.
"Well, just read the whole speech. I found the speech even more disconcerting than just thatt particular line. The context is worse than the quote," Romney told CNBC on Monday.
"I
cannot believe the president of the United States could say that I have
not made this," one small-business owner says in a web video released
Tuesday by American Crossroads, an independent group supporting Romney's
campaign.
"When President
Obama said in Roanoke that 'if you've got a business you didn't build
that, somebody else made that happen,' I was personally extremely
insulted," office supplier Melissa Ball of Richmond, Va., said on a
Republican Party conference call with reporters.
Recognizing the potency of this theme, the Obama campaign began pushing back harder.
During
a raucous, 1,000-person campaign fundraiser a day earlier in Oakland,
Calif., Obama said Romney was "knowingly twisting my words around."
"I
understand these are the games that get played in political campaigns,"
Obama said. "Although when folks just omit entire sentences of what you
said, they start kind of splicing and dicing, you may have gone a
little over the edge there."
The Obama campaign also released web videos Monday and Tuesday rebutting Romney's assertions.
In
one, the campaign accused the presumptive GOP nominee of having
"deliberately altered the meaning of the president's words." A second
video out Tuesday featured deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, who
said Romney was "not telling the truth about what the president said."
Taken as a whole, Obama's remarks aren't that different from Romney's comments in 2002 to Olympic athletes.
"You Olympians, however, know you
didn't get here solely on your own power," Romney said after
congratulating the athletes. "For most of you, loving parents, sisters
or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built
venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the
shoulders of those who lifted them."
Romney's
team didn't seem to mind the risk. The backdrop for his campaign stop
Monday in California: a blue banner that said, "We Did Build It!"
___
Associated Press writers Julie Pace in Oakland, Calif., and Thomas Beaumont in Reno, Nev., contributed to this report.
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