Last week Fox News was giddy.. seriously giddy. The kiddies over at "Fox & Friends" finally had their PROOF that President Obama was a SOCIALIST! To that point they showed a clip where the President was apparently disparaging the hard work small business owners put in building those business and claiming the Government was really the one responsible for all their success.
They even had a "small business owner" on the show to voice her outrage at the President's "insult".
The problem if course is that isn't what the President meant, or even said. Fox News selectively edited the clip, changing both the context and the meaning of the President's words. Here is the full quote from the President's remarks. The text in blue is everything Fox News cut out of the clip:
OBAMA: [L]ook, 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 GI 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.
Sigh.... Normally I wouldn't even comment on stuff like this. But Fox News has spent the last two weeks flogging this little piece of selective editing like a rented mule. The Romney Campaign, which was desperate to talk about something, ANYthing other than Mitt Romney's taxes, Swiss bank accounts and the fact he lied about when he really left Bain Capital; Jumped on this like a drowning man to a life raft.
The problem with that of course is we live in a digital age, and sooner or later video of you making the exact same point that that President made, was going to pop up... and lo and behold....
Here is my problem with Mitt Romney. I don't blame him for being rich or successful. I congratulate him for that and wish that every American has the same opportunities for success that Mitt Romney has had. That isn't the issue. My problem with Mitt Romney is that he truly has no core beliefs. He will literally say anything. If what Mitt Romney says today, is a complete 180 degree contradiction of what Mitt Romney said yesterday, he simply ignores it and pretends everything else he has ever said or done, just doesn't exist.
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I have made no secret of my disappointment with President Obama's first term. I feel he has been a weak centrist and not the bold progressive agent of change he campaigned as. Yet at the end of the day to put Mitt Romney in the White House is a recipe for social and economic disaster.
They even had a "small business owner" on the show to voice her outrage at the President's "insult".
The problem if course is that isn't what the President meant, or even said. Fox News selectively edited the clip, changing both the context and the meaning of the President's words. Here is the full quote from the President's remarks. The text in blue is everything Fox News cut out of the clip:
OBAMA: [L]ook, 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 GI 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.
Sigh.... Normally I wouldn't even comment on stuff like this. But Fox News has spent the last two weeks flogging this little piece of selective editing like a rented mule. The Romney Campaign, which was desperate to talk about something, ANYthing other than Mitt Romney's taxes, Swiss bank accounts and the fact he lied about when he really left Bain Capital; Jumped on this like a drowning man to a life raft.
The problem with that of course is we live in a digital age, and sooner or later video of you making the exact same point that that President made, was going to pop up... and lo and behold....
Here is my problem with Mitt Romney. I don't blame him for being rich or successful. I congratulate him for that and wish that every American has the same opportunities for success that Mitt Romney has had. That isn't the issue. My problem with Mitt Romney is that he truly has no core beliefs. He will literally say anything. If what Mitt Romney says today, is a complete 180 degree contradiction of what Mitt Romney said yesterday, he simply ignores it and pretends everything else he has ever said or done, just doesn't exist.
]
I have made no secret of my disappointment with President Obama's first term. I feel he has been a weak centrist and not the bold progressive agent of change he campaigned as. Yet at the end of the day to put Mitt Romney in the White House is a recipe for social and economic disaster.
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