Obama Pushes Back on 'You Didn't Build That' Flap.

[elleng]

Source: AP/NYT

Romney has taken Obama to task for saying "you didn't build that" in a campaign speech about how government helps small businesses thrive. Romney's campaign is running ads that suggest Obama doesn't think entrepreneurs build their own businesses.

The new Obama ad features the president speaking directly to the camera. He says the Romney ads take his words out of context and, the president says, are "flat out wrong."

Obama says was referring to public programs like education and infrastructure that helped businesses be successful.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/07/24/us/ap-us-obama-campaign-ad.html?hp

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R and proud of our president.

[silverweb]

2. K&R

[monmouth]

3. He mentioned it in his Oregon speech, the audience knew exactly what was going on and POTUS

received huge applause. That speech btw, was a barn burner. Audience loved it and him...

[elleng]

12. That was today?

Hope to see it on C-SPAN.

[gademocrat7]

4. K&R

[freshwest]

5. Breaking through the smoke and mirrors man Romney! Thanks elleng!

[RedStateLiberal]

6. Here's the ad video

[Blanks]

7. He had to know that he was borrowing the theme from Romney.

[elleng]

9. Actually 'borrowed' from Elizabeth Warren.

[Blanks]

13. I wanna believe that the administration knew...

...that there was video on the innernets with Romney saying very close to the same thing; before he gave that speech.

I think it really makes Romney look stupid after making a commercial about it and everything; that he said something so similar (except with a bizarre emphasis on words) ten years ago.

[elleng]

14. Not unlikely that administration knew about rmoney's much earlier statements,

and it makes rmoney look WORSE than stupid, imo: DUPLICITOUS!

[Blanks]

15. I think he set him up. eom

[KurtNYC]

24. Romney's team pounced on one phrase that Obama

stammered through with an extra "that":

"Somebody invested in roads and bridges, if you've got a business, that, you didn't build that."

It was a very foolish thing for Romney to try and exploit since his distortion of it is easily disproved by the widely available footage of the entire segment. You can count on Romney to lie but you can't predict what he will lie about when he is on the attack.

There is no set up here, unlike the taxes thing... btw wait until you see where THAT goes.

[Blanks]

28. I'd rather believe Obama set him up.

It makes Obama look clever and Romney look like a putz for falling for it.

Why would anyone that supports Obama 'not' want to believe that his campaign was aware that the footage of Romney telling the athletes "they didn't get there on their own" was out there just so they could point it out.

If nothing else; knowing that the two speeches are similar encourages people to look at both speeches to compare and contrast. Which makes taking Obamas speech out of context look dishonest.

[KurtNYC]

29. You can of course believe what you like but there is no evidence for it.

There is footage of Romney saying everything there is to say, taking every side of every issue. Making self-contradictory statements. It's a flip-flopping mess.

The Whitehouse labeled this phony quote attack as "bogus" and then let it run:

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=you+didn%27t+build+that+bogus&oq=you+didn%27t+build+that+bogus&gs_l=hp.3...4209.8501.1.9273.6.6.0.0.0.0.112.600.3j3.6.0...0.0...1c.7BPBYf2TX_0&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=e615dba5e61937b9&biw=1280&bih=661

[Chorophyll]

8. Good! K&R.

[JBoy]

10. I detect an emerging campaign theme and contrast.

Obama says "we're all in this together".

The GOP thinks "you're all on your own".

[Ruby the Liberal]

20. Well stated!

[MissMarple]

11. Turn into the fire. Fire back.

Take those .....! out.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Needs to do this faster next time.

But, good stuff. I've been correcting people left and right that excerpt the infrastructure bit from his speech. Getting a lot of mileage out of it.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. Need to do very quick response

[KurtNYC]

25. yes and should have jumped on Romney for citing Henry Ford

as one of the three whose buisiness didn't need or benefit from "roads and bridges" (!?)

Doing so would have tied the phrase back together. Romney is pretending that "that" is referring to the buisiness when it actually refers to "roads and bridges."

[Prophet 451]

18. Why are politicians not allowed to say "lying"?

I've noticed this for a while. Romney's campaign is based on flat-out lies but no politician actually uses that word. They say "untrue" or "wrong" but they never call it what it is, lying.

[elleng]

19. Dems are polite.

They are certainly 'allowed' to say "lying."

[Prophet 451]

23. Too polite, in my opinion.

I understand the technical distinction between mistakes and lying (as our learned friend below points out) but there are numerous examples where Romney in particular or Republicans in general are deliberately and willfully lying but that single word is never used.

[Scootaloo]

26. Same reason you can't call liars liars here on DU

it becomes a "personal attack," even if the term is 100% deserved.

[elleng]

30. I agree its often 'over the top' politeness,

and I'll leave it to surrogates who, I think, do use it occasionally. I don't expect President Obama ever to use the word, tho he might 'euphemistically' use the definition, like 'You know that didn't happen,' or 'You know I didn't say that,' or 'You know it didn't happen that way.'

[Igel]

21. Because of the word's meaning.

If you lie you're saying something untrue and you expect your audience to believe it's true.

On the other hand, it's also possible to just be mistaken, say something untrue, expect your audience to believe it's true, and not lie. So just saying something untrue and expecting the audience to believe it true isn't enough of a definition for 'lie.'

If you lie, you must also know that what you're saying is false. You know it's untrue and you're intentionally trying to deceive your audience.

If you don't have evidence that the other person knows what he's saying is false, assertions that they're lying are risky. You can have an opinion, and that opinion can easily be wrong. If you want to deal with fact, you wait for evidence. You often never get it.

There's also the issue of good will. If there's doubt, you generally give people the benefit of it. You don't let your assumptions fill in where you have no evidence, and then confuse your assumptions for evidence.

A lot of people, including most of my students, don't have this distinction when they deal with others. They've lost the idea of good will--they deserve it but others don't. Somebody says something wrong and provably wrong, they just say they're lying. The other person says he didn't know what he said was false? Simply not possible, and the distinction doesn't matter. He lyin'. He has to be, otherwise he wouldn't have said something wrong.

They have a very sharp distinction, the difference between saying something you mistakenly believe to be true versus saying something you know to be false, when they're told they're lying. They know they were mistaken, how dare anybody accuse them of lying? There's a world of difference between making a mistake and lying when *they* are accused.

The hypocrisy is rank, or would be if they were aware enough to realize their double standard. Perhaps they just lack any sense of humility or self-introspection. It shows a lack of critical thinking, sometimes a wilful lack of critical thinking. Bodes poorly for the future. Explains much about the present.

[Prophet 451]

22. I understand the distinction

And I know that, much of the time, it's expected to assume that the speaker is mistaken. But there are times when Romney is clearly lying in the full meaning of that word. Romney's continual lies about his record, for example, are lies. Plain and deliberate lies and frequently, lies about his lies and yet, Democrats are not allowed to use that word to describe them.

[elleng]

31. A 'lie' isn't a mistake, it is a KNOWING untruth,

everyone should know this, and surely the voting populace should; that's one of the reasons children can't vote.

[nanabugg]

27. The Romney crew will soon get off of this. It's giving BO too much opportunity to make him look bad