User:RightCowLeftCoast/Sandbox/2012 Roanoke Obama campaign speech

On the 13th of July, 2012 in Roanoke, Virginia, President Obama gave a campaign speech outside Roanoke Fire Station #1. In the speech when talking about businesses Obama stated "You didn't build that". The statement, and later the entire speech, received wide coverage. The statement was later used to create an ad by the Romney campaign, with the Obama campaign stating that the statement was taken out of context.

Speech
On a campaign swing that saw multiple stops in Virginia, Obama made a stop in Roanoke, Virginia to speak to supporters. The stop lasted for over an hour and involved former Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, who is campaigning to become a senator, and Senator Mark Warner. During the event, Obama spoke about multiple topics; when speaking about business he stated the following: "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."

- President Barack Obama

Response
Although the remark wasn't initially seen as significant, it soon gained traction, and it became a hash-tag on Twitter. According to David Weigel of Slate, the first news story regarding the speech was done by Fox News. Additionally, the statement "You didn't build that" has become a meme with multiple images using it on the internet.

Commentators
In an opinion piece written in the Wall Street Journal on the 17th of July the author stated that the speech is a "burst of ideological candor", and that the statement meant that "the self-made man is an illusion". In another piece written in the Wall Street Journal by James Taranto he wrote that "The president's remark was a direct attack on the principle of individual responsibility, the foundation of American freedom." Later Kimberley Strassel, wrote that the portion of the speech which spoke about the Obama's views on the relationship between business and government were similar to statements made by Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, and that the effect of the speech was to "suck away the president's momentum."

In the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin wrote that the statement showed that Obama "revealed a level of resentment toward the private sector that was startling, even to his critics.", and that the speech reflects that "the anti-business assaults become the campaign. Meanwhile, his affection for government become a chip on his shoulder, prompting him to dare those private-sector wise guys to deny the centrality of government in their success." Later, Glenn Kessler said that the Obama statement was taken out of context and that he was speaking about infrastructure.

In The Atlantic, Andrew Cline wrote that what Obama said was an " enormous controversy -- a philosophical rewriting of the American story.", and that "With his Roanoke speech, Obama turned Jefferson on his head. In Obama's formulation, government is not a tool for the people's use, but the very foundation upon which all of American prosperity is built. Government is not dependent upon the people; the people are dependent upon the government." This he writes is fundamentally non-Jeffersonian Josh Barro, in Bloomberg, wrote that Obama's speech was needlessly insulting, and that the statement resonates badly with people of all income levels; later he quoted Sam Seaborn in the television show The West Wing in regards to progressive taxation.

In researching the 2002 Winter Olympics, NBC News' Domenico Montanaro found that Romney made a similar statement during his speech during those game's opening ceremony, where he said: "Tonight we cheer the Olympians, who only yesterday were children themselves. As we watch them over the next 16 days, we affirm that our aspirations, and those of our children and grandchildren, can become reality. We salute you Olympians – both because you dreamed and because you paid the price to make your dreams real. You guys pushed yourself, drove yourself, sacrificed, trained and competed time and again at winning and losing. You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities. All right!"

- Mitt Romney

Eugene Kiely wrote on FactCheck.org that the use of the statement by the Romney campaign was taken out of context as in the speech Obama was speeking about how government-funded education, infrastructure, and research assisted businesses in what he called the "unbelievable american system" and that he summarizes it by saying "that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together." This view was also shared by Politifact, saying that the Romney campaign "cherry-picked a quote that made it sound like Obama was dismissive of businesses when in fact he was making a point that success comes from the combination of "individual initiative" and the fact that "we do things together."", and that by doing so "Romney and his supporters have misled viewers and given a false impression."

In the New York Magazine, Jonathan Chait wrote that Romney use of the words from the Roanoke speech as a "plan of blatantly lying" about it, and the reason why it works is because of a "broader subtext" of the speech due to Obama not using his normal voice, but speaking with a "black dialect". In the Huffington Post, Michael Smerconish wrote that the Romney campaign did take the words out of context, and that the message of the importance of social contracts were better worded by Elizabeth Warren. On the same website Nelson Davis, President of Nelson Davis Productions, rebuked the conservatives' take on what Obama had said in Roanoke, saying that the reason why the United States has become great is due to business and government working together.

On The Daily Show, John Stewart said that the Romney campaign was centering his campaign on words taken out of context, and followed this by saying conservative commentators perpetuated the use of the quote.

Romney campaign
The following Monday, the 16th of July, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney spoke about the "you didn't build that" statement in a campaign stump speech. The following day, Romney rebuffed Obama's statement in Pennsylvania by saying: "To say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, that Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motors, that Papa John didn’t build Papa John Pizza ... To say something like that, it’s not just foolishness. It’s insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America,"

- Mitt Romney

This was followed by campaign events with small business owners in multiple states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Nevada), and creation of a new part of the Romney campaign website.

Obama campaign
On the 17th of July the Obama campaign stated that the statement was taken out of context, and as the statement gained traction the campaign ran new ads in multiple states (Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Nevada) where the President directly counter's Romney's claims. In the ad Obama says while looking directly at the camera: "Those ads taking my words about small business out of context? They're flat out wrong, ...Of course Americans build their own businesses."

- President Barack Obama