Obama campaign spokeswomen Stephanie Cutter is back with another newscaster-esque video in which she assails the Romney campaign. In the video released Tuesday, Cutter first accuses the Romney campaign of taking the president’s “You didn’t build that!” speech out of context and then attacks Romney’s time at the helm of Bain Capital. That attack takes a new line. Instead of accusing Bain of outsourcing, it accuses Bain of taking a bailout, and accuses some Bain companies of taking tax breaks. Cutter, without evident irony, then says: “[T]hese attack ads make you wonder does [Romney] even understand how our economy works? You and I know how it works. We build our businesses through hard work and initiative. With the public and private sectors working together to create a climate that helps us grow.”
The president’s own July 13 remarks, though, denigrate hard work: “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, there are a whole bunch of hard working people out there!”
Cutter should study up on attitudes within the Obama Environmental Protection Agency to learn about how much of the public sector actually deals with the private sector. Two of its regional administrators, both Obama appointees, have staked out stridently anti-business attitudes. Former regional administrator Al Armendariz admitted that he enjoyed “crucifying” businesses to terrify others. Current regional admin Curt Spalding admitted that he wishes the EPA could tell communities that depend on coal production to “go away.” Armendariz resigned once his comments came to light, but the president has taken no action at all against Spalding.
Cutter’s video is below:
Regarding the campaign’s “context” argument, the context of the speech does not help. Obama ripped off (without attribution) comments delivered earlier this year by Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, an academician with no real business experience and who has been caught up in a scandal regarding her self-identification as a Cherokee Indian without evidence. Obama sneered at the idea of individual work and good ideas leading to business success, crediting collective action more than individual initiative for businesses that thrive. He suggested that government has an entirely benevolent role with regard to business, never acknowledging that a government powerful enough to help business grow can also create an environment that makes it more difficult to survive. He also never took into account the fact that some people succeed in business and some do not, despite the fact that we all use the same infrastructure he praised in his speech, and which has never really been much of a political question. Obama also credited the government for building the Golden Gate bridge and building the Internet, neither of which is entirely accurate. The government actually stood in the way of building the Golden Gate Bridge for years.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member