Politifact already did. - Edit 2
Before modification by Joel at 01/09/2012 08:56:25 PM
"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."
You didn't succeed because you are smart or work hard does not diminish what people accomplish? I think we need an honest fact checker to look at that claim. Does the left really look at those statements and think there is no problem with them?
Read the HP Way, it tells the story of how Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started Hewlett Packard and helped to found Silicon Valley. During the height of the depression Dave Packard left a good paying job at GE to start a company building audio oscillators in their garage and baking the coils in their home oven. What Obama missed and what liberals in general tend to miss is that how smart they are or how hard they are willing to work isn’t really the issue it is how bold they are and their willingness to take risk that makes the diffidence. Most of take the safe 9-5 route where someone else is responsible for making sure the company succeeds and we keep food on our table. It is a hard and scary thing to strike out on your ownbut that is what drive our economy. But liberals look at two men like this who built one of the largest companies in world from nothing and they don’t say you succeeded becausenot because you were bold and innovative (not to mention smart and hard working) and able to inspire smart hard working people to help follow you but instead credit needs to be given to the government because they took some of your money and built roads with it. Yes we have to have roads and that is why republicans regularly vote for highway bills and why states like Texas are constantly investing in infrastructure but we understand that the infrastructure will attract the bold and we don’t try and take credit for their success or claim that they only reason they were able to succeed is we built the roads. the best we can do is take credit for creating and envrioment that rewards thier risk and attracts them to take those risk here.
Being capitalist we believe free markets create wealth and opportunity while liberals seem to think success is partially undeserved and being undeserving of the all of the credit for their success the successful really shouldn’t complain if we take more. That is why “You didn’t build that” resonates, the failure to understand that is why liberals go around saying dumb things like “ republicans shouldn’t drive on roads if they are against the government building things”. Instead they call letting the successful keep more of their money theft because in their minds that money really never belonged to them to begin with.
You didn't succeed because you are smart or work hard does not diminish what people accomplish? I think we need an honest fact checker to look at that claim. Does the left really look at those statements and think there is no problem with them?
Read the HP Way, it tells the story of how Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started Hewlett Packard and helped to found Silicon Valley. During the height of the depression Dave Packard left a good paying job at GE to start a company building audio oscillators in their garage and baking the coils in their home oven. What Obama missed and what liberals in general tend to miss is that how smart they are or how hard they are willing to work isn’t really the issue it is how bold they are and their willingness to take risk that makes the diffidence. Most of take the safe 9-5 route where someone else is responsible for making sure the company succeeds and we keep food on our table. It is a hard and scary thing to strike out on your ownbut that is what drive our economy. But liberals look at two men like this who built one of the largest companies in world from nothing and they don’t say you succeeded becausenot because you were bold and innovative (not to mention smart and hard working) and able to inspire smart hard working people to help follow you but instead credit needs to be given to the government because they took some of your money and built roads with it. Yes we have to have roads and that is why republicans regularly vote for highway bills and why states like Texas are constantly investing in infrastructure but we understand that the infrastructure will attract the bold and we don’t try and take credit for their success or claim that they only reason they were able to succeed is we built the roads. the best we can do is take credit for creating and envrioment that rewards thier risk and attracts them to take those risk here.
Being capitalist we believe free markets create wealth and opportunity while liberals seem to think success is partially undeserved and being undeserving of the all of the credit for their success the successful really shouldn’t complain if we take more. That is why “You didn’t build that” resonates, the failure to understand that is why liberals go around saying dumb things like “ republicans shouldn’t drive on roads if they are against the government building things”. Instead they call letting the successful keep more of their money theft because in their minds that money really never belonged to them to begin with.
Your version of Obamas comments redacts about a paragraph between the part you quoted and the "you didn't build that" remark:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. 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. 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 Internet 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.
"So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the G.I. Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President -- because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together."
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’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.
"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.
"So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the G.I. Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President -- because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together."
The bolded section is the ACTUAL context you skipped; the italicized sections eliminate any doubt of Obamas meaning: Not denigrating individuals, but affirming American society over the "on your ownership" society.