I NEVER agree with John Podhoretz. Or his father. Well, almost never, because I agree with him on this (see below). To some extent, anyway. He is, as is usual for him, over-stating the case. But he does at least point in the direction of truth this time. Obama made a rhetorical error when he said "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Looking at the full context of his speech, everyone knows what he means. And I have seen some Republicans honestly trying to respond to the real meaning of the speech, without much success that I've seen so far, although others--like Pohoretz below--wrench it out of context and use it in attack mode. However, it is crucial for Obama to work on how he says what he means with this, because, really, it gets to the heart of the difference between the current RW and Democrats, it gets to the question, what is govt for, what does govt do. The Libertarian wing of the Republican Party wants to reduce govt to defense and protection of private property and contracts. That is all. But Obama's statement is trying to show how we would all be poorer if that is all govt did. Someone on one of the RW threads said, "Oh, but who is to say that the internet wouldn't have been invented even without govt?" This is nonsense, but it has to be pointed out how much nonsense it is. But Democrats also have to give individual initiative and responsibility and success its due, and cannot belittle people who start and run businesses. So Obama has work on his speech, and get it right, and give a great speech at the convention that gets the balance right.
The Biggest Mistake of Campaign 2012…
John Podhoretz
…is not Mitt Romney’s handling of Bain Capital, or anything Mitt Romney has done. The biggest mistake was the one made by Barack Obama on Friday, when what you might call his now-familiar “Declaration of Interdependence” went completely off the rails. Obama’s “we’re all in this together” bit has been a feature of his speeches during the past year, as he cites the government-led activities that have made this country better—land-grant colleges and infrastructure and the social safety net. It sounds kind of uplifting, which is why he likes to say it, and it fits his general message of a country in which government plays a central role for the good of all.
But when he extended it to personal and private endeavor, the president revealed the danger of this message—to him. ”If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that,” Obama said. “Somebody else made that happen.” Aside from the fact that this isn’t even remotely true—if you’re a taxpayer and government funds were used to “make something happen,” then by definition you paid for it—it was profoundly stupid politically. In 2007, the last year for which we have data, according to the Census Bureau, there were 21.7 million businesses in the United States with no employees—meaning they were sole proprietorships, or free-lance businesses employing only their owner. Of the six million remaining businesses in the U.S., more than 3 million had 1 to 4 employees, and 1 million had 5 to 9. So, all in all, small businesses run by one person employing fewer than ten numbered an astonishing 25 million.
This is probably the matter of greatest pride for each and every one of the people who runs that business. He or she views himself or herself as a hard-working, go-getting, scrappy individualist. And it’s likely that many of them—many, many of them—are independent voters. Certainly that was the case 20 years ago when Ross Perot scored 20 percent of the vote, overwhelmingly from small businessmen who were angered by George H.W. Bush and yet couldn’t pull the lever for Bill Clinton. America is different demographically, but the class of people to whom Perot appealed is far larger than it was then.
And a man running for national office just said of their own businesses that they “didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” This statement is a colossal opportunity for Mitt Romney and will prove a suppurating wound for the president, who revealed a degree not only of condescension but of contempt for the very people who are going to decide this election.
And if there’s one thing people recognize, it’s when they are being viewed with contempt.
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