Former Comedian Bill Maher: The Rich Should Just Admit that They're Lucky

Bill Maher doubles down on a certain line that has become a problem for the Obama Democrats over the past few weeks.

Everyone loves a good underdog story, and President Barack Obama has just that, according to comedian Bill Maher, who said on his Friday night comedy program that Democrats just wish Republicans would admit they were born into laps of luxury.

“New rule: if reelected, President Obama must appoint Bill Clinton to head the EPA because on Wednesday night he cleared away an unbelievable amount of toxic bullshit,” Maher said. “Beginning with knocking down the contention that Democrats are envious of success and sneer at the American Dream of starting out with nothing and making good. No, it’s not that liberals envy the rich, they just wish the rich would admit they were just lucky.”

Bill Maher is certainly lucky. He is short, not good looking, and hasn’t been close to funny in at least 10 years. He offers no form of insight in any of his commentary, and isn’t entertaining, shrewd or witty. His best lines are probably written for him by other people. But he offers what HBO executives want, a fairly cheaply produced show that can generate buzz based on the idiotic and leftist things its host frequently says. To the Obama campaign, Maher offers $1 million dollars that it cannot afford to turn away.

As for Maher’s comment, it’s the former comedian’s version of “You didn’t build that!” It’s not even an original thought.

Luck certainly plays a role in success, but persistence, hard work, vision and smarts tend to play far more important roles. You could be born with the gifts that Robert Griffin III obviously has and be born at a time in history when they can make you rich, but if he stops working hard or stops making good choices in his life, those gifts won’t keep him in the NFL. Thomas Edison famously said that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Visit his lab in Florida and you’ll see more failures than successes there, as he tried, failed, and tried again to perfect his work.

Bill Maher would just say Edison was lucky, and didn’t build any of his inventions anyway. Or that RGIII is just the luckiest man in the world. That’s when Maher’s Pavlovian audience gets the cue to laugh and applaud.

All of this gets at something the Democrats really don’t want discussed: “You didn’t build that!” + “Government is the only thing we all really belong to” sums up their worldview perfectly.