Topic: Liberal Fascism
Barack Obama’s “You didn’t build that” blunder was a nice gift to Mitt Romney. But it wasn’t just a gaffe or a slip of the tongue. As the full transcript of Obama’s pointed and mocking remarks about business owners demonstrates, we have a president who is contemptuous of the culture of achievement that has made America great. In Obama’s view, all good things come from government: “You didn’t build that.”
Various liberal pundits, e.g. Ezra Klein, are providing covering fire for Obama with the claim that his remarks were taken out of context. But the whole passage, which Klein quotes, actually makes it worse for the President:
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 ‘cause 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.
This simply oozes contempt for achievement and success, particularly given Obama’s smartass tone as he delivered the above lines.
But the President’s blunder demonstrates something else as well: Contrary to the claims of his supporters, Barack Obama is really not much of a politician. In 2008 the stars were in alignment and he managed to oil his way into the Oval Office. But virtually from the moment of his arrival there, it’s been evident that Obama lacks both the political skills and the character to be an effective president. Coupled with his enormous self-regard and sense of entitlement, these flaws are virtually guaranteed to produce such unforced errors as this one—for which I have no doubt Mitt Romney is very grateful indeed.
