Here is a clip of the President’s speech in which he made the unforced error of saying ‘You didn’t build that,’ and grammarically the sentence reads to say you did not build your own business. However I accept that if you look at the speech before and after then sentence it seems the president had a brain cloud moment using the antecedent ‘that’ when he meant the antecedent ‘those.’
The text before the sentence in question is about infrastructure and support systems, the conclusion statement that follow immediately are about infrastucture and support, so I think it is perfectly reasonable and not spin to accept that he was referring to the roads and bridges.
Brad, SHAME ON YOU!!! Democrats have no monopoly on crony capitalism and you darned well know it (Or if you don’t, you should!!!)
In Florida we had a HUGE bill that was passed to reform welfare by requiring random drug testing for them to receive their checks. Who got the contract for the drug testing??? The former company of the Governor, that’s who!! And the result?? We now know that a VERY SMALL percentage of welfare recipients use drugs. Good information, but we can definitely do better things with the money. Here’s some references:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/20/2758871/floridas-welfare-drug-tests-cost.html
http://www.economist.com/node/18805970
Specific reference to Scott’s (recently former) stock ownership in the company in question:
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/08/98_of_florida_welfare_applicants_pass_newly_implemented_drug_tests_discrediting_governor.html
They all do it. The money is too big. Damned shame.
As far as socialism, there is no question Obama wants to rebuild American society by having government take the leading role in picking winners and losers in the economy. Crony capitalism does not fit the definition of pure socialism, but it does fit the European “social democrat” model of so-called mixed economies. Obamacare, the GM buyout which favored UAW interests, Cash for Clunkers and the whole Green Jobs strategy which gave a half-billion to Solyndra are concrete examples of this.
Too bad for Obama that crony capitalism doesn’t work very well in practice or over the long term. All it is doing is keeping unemployment higher than normal and driving the government even more quickly into catastrophic monetary failure.
Actually I don;t think there is very much difference between Jon stewart’s take and my own. Obama was making the point that no one is entirely self made because we all require the infrastructure. The ‘you didn’t build that’ brain fade is about building the bridges not the businesses, just as Romney’s “I Lke firing People” is about comptetition not laying people off. The claim that Obama is stating that busniess people did not build there businesses, and the focus of several pro-Romney ads, is out fo context.
Is it a straw man to say that Republicans want no publicn spending on infrastructure, yes it is. I was not rating the qaulity of the argument, but it is also a straw man to call Obama’s policies socialistic.
Wow Bob. Just wow.
Not even Jon Stewart in his defense of what Obama said is claiming that Obama was not talking about private business. And Obama’s statement seems to come from the same place that very similar statements by Senate candidate Warren and George Lakoff comes from.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/07/obama-and-warren-cribbed-build-it-narrative-from-progressive-berkeley-professor/
The most charitable thing that can be said about what Obama said, is that he was knocking down an absurd straw man. A straw man, which is weirdly popular among the ‘democratic wing of the democratic party’, which claims that groups like the tea-party are wild eyed anarchists who oppose all government. Giving to the voters a false choice between Democratic big-government and Republican no-government.
The least charitable thing that can be said about the Obama speech is that it reflects a core belief about the proper role of individuals and businesses in America, a role which is distinctly subservient to Government. As such it fits with previous leftish statements by Obama, from his approval of higher capital gains taxes for the sake of fairness even if it means less revenue, to his statements that the private sector is just fine and the nations real economic problem is with the public sector.
a link to the private v public sector statement
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/06/obamas-most-clueless-moment-yet.php
a link to a anecdote of Obama economic stewardship and self-delusion
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/03/the-entire-obama-presidency-in-one-anecdote/