You might think Obama said that if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. You might think Obama said that your achievements in life aren’t due to smarts and hard work, because a lot of smart people are hard workers but aren’t as successful as you are. You might think Obama said those things, just because Obama said those things.
Ha! You arrogant capitalist wingnut. Obama didn’t really say that because you took it out of context, and also it doesn’t matter that he said what he very clearly said.
That’s the message we’ve been getting this week from Obama’s supporters. They’ve been put in the unenviable position of trying to spin his most recent Kinsley gaffe into something vaguely resembling an advantage. “No, dummy, what he meant to say was…” Somehow, the Smartest President Ever can’t express himself clearly using simple, commonly understood words. He needs his surrogates to tell you why he didn’t say what he said. (Tim Cavanaugh at Reason.com has catalogued a few examples of how “You didn’t build that” became “He didn’t say that.”)
It’s “Obama didn’t bow to royalty” all over again. Are you going to believe the evidence of your own senses, or the tortured logic of panicked leftists watching their world fall apart?
I was going to write a whole long thing about the cognitive dissonance on display this past week, but it’s Friday, and also the Obama campaign was nice enough to make the point for me with this bewildering ad:
Did you get that? “Romney lied about what Obama said, and now here’s the clip of what Obama said, which is word-for-word what Romney quoted him as saying.” Damn, these guys are good.
I don’t know who did this shortened version of that ad, but it sums the whole thing up:
Forget it, they’re rolling.
What’s that you say? “Obama just meant that nobody goes through life alone. Everybody needs help.” Well, duh. So, more and more government is the answer? Less and less liberty? If I don’t want my every decision to be made by people I’ll never see, if I think I can figure out how to run my own life and pursue happiness as best as I can without being dictated to by some bureaucrat, if I’m pretty sure that the Founding Fathers intended for government to serve the people and not the other way around… that means I want to tear down all the Stop signs and let all the schools crumble to dust? Do you really not know the difference between society and government?
Taranto put it best:
So the World’s Greatest Orator needs an army of bullshit shovelers to help him communicate a banal truism like “Man is a social animal”?
— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) July 19, 2012
The next time some beleaguered lefties tell you that “If you have a successful business, you didn’t build that” is being taken out of context, just remember what the context is: They want Obama to win.
P.S. Obama tells supporters to press Mute when ads targeting him air. I agree. Obama’s supporters should not try to understand their opponents’ arguments. Just pretend they don’t exist. It’s been working out beautifully so far! Well, not for them…
P.P.S. If you think the government is responsible for your success because you use roads that are funded by your taxes, #YouMightBeALiberal.
P.P.P.S. Bill Whittle isn’t surprised by the thing Obama said that he didn’t say even though he said it. Do you believe in miracles?