What I Said Was, "We Need to Stand Behind Them"

Cross-posted from my Google+ account.

Riiiiiight.  In other words, just pretend I didn't say, "[they] didn't build that" or ever so subtly imply they're not paying enough in taxes (their "fair share") or that their success came from Government infrastructure (oh, and let's ignore they paid for that infrastructure, anyway).

Here's the full and glorious context of how he's "always struck" at the egotism of people who take credit for their own, hard-earned success (again, this coming from the world's greatest orator and Nobel Peace Prize winner who won because he wasn't Bush):

"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.  (Applause.)

"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."

Yep, there's the real ticket to American economic success:  Re-elect the One, have small business owners team up with government bureaucrats to help them put out any economic fires they have or may encounter and make sure these business owners pay their fair share (read: more) in taxes (because they're not paying enough for those roads, bureaucrats, or firefighters).

Oh yeah, what's another quote of President Obama recently "taken out of context" about American business/the economy?  "We tried our plan and it worked."  (Except for that whole promise about keeping unemployment under 8% and the country struggling through its worst economic recovery since the Great Depression.)  I want to hear him argue this quote was taken out of context and that his plan didn't work -- at least we'd be getting somewhere.