look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.
 

Google it and let the comments roll.

Did Obama steal that from Elizabeth Warren?

Those comments made me think back to logging all the East Coast forests and all the immigrants that worked the mills, ran cattle, built railroads.....built an entire country.

Entrepreneurs....Ideas....Dreams....Reality

I know what he's trying to say, but he delivered it stupidly. If I were a self-made business leader, I would be, at the very least, insulted by those remarks. Modern infrastructure is a given today. Everyone expects running water, electricity, web access, roads, and cell phones. The statement that businesses are more indebted to these things than anyone else who uses them, without citing all the positives that businesses provide is a big campaign mistake.

"There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others.
Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success."

George Burton Adams

Its a statement that has just barely enough truth to avoid being called a lie, but it demeans all those who are successful. It panders to all those who think they are smart, or ambitious, or hard-working yet haven't had that high a degree of success. It builds into that victim mentality that this administration wants its base to believe.
Conversely, the most liberating concept is that " I am where I am in my life exactly because of the choices I have made, and that by making better choices, I can make a better life."
All that "help" that Obama says came from others----most of it was funded by taxes that came from the people themselves--even the businesses that use the roads--ask any trucker what he pays to use those "public" roads.

It was VERY telling about his philosophies as if we didn't already know them. It's just more clear evidence that he thinks government is the ONLY answer to all problems.

It was pretty insulting.

The worst part is that he is attempting to "dumb down America" with such comments. Making success a bad thing, removes motivation for many people. Why work when ol' B.O.'s gonna give me a check for doing nothing?

This is exactly what he wants. It plays right into his hands while he is trying to "fundamentally change America."

Jay Leno said last night that B.O. is running on the same strategy as last time, Hope. After four years B.O. STILL has us hoping.

Dear government:

Give me this day my daily FREE bread so that I don't have to get off my dead lazy a** and lift one finger. Thanks to your entitlement programs, I'm a moocher, not a producer.

Here's to sucking the system dry
and being your slave forever,

Moocher man

It's not often he makes his points this poorly. He handed this one to you righties. Continue with your tizzy.

Yeah, when his REAL thoughts slip out I'm sure it's tough on you guys.

You think our "tizzy" is unwarranted?

I think you're grabbing straws. His point that most successful people owe their success at least in part to others and sometimes even to a government leg-up is hardly revolutionary. Sure, you can read some scary socialist agenda into it if you'd like. Be my guest.
We all like to imagine we're the Lone Cowboy, never takin' nuthin' from nobody and doin' it all on our lonesome our own way, facin' down the badguys with nothin' but our Colt with only one shot left.
It's hardly ever really like that.

A more realistic analogy is when you have a group of people who receive the same environmental inputs, education, and benefits of living in a modern society. A few, the leaders, will rise up and leverage those assets in new and interesting ways, while the rest sit around and talk about it.

Just because they did more with the same materials doesn't mean they are now more indebted than those who didn't take action.

VERY well put!:)

I wish I had said that.
Excellent!!

Not much to disagree with there, but is it your assertion that all of those who are not successful (by whatever arbitrary measure of success) are "those who didn't take action"? In other words, lack of success is always the fault of the one who failed?

'Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern.
Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude.
Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern.

Then you go on to some action.

When we look at other parts of this earth upon which we live. We find that black, brown, red, yellow people in Asia and Africa are getting their independance.
They are not getting it by singing "We Shall Overcome". No, they are getting it through nationalism. It is Nationalism that brought about the independance of the people of Asia.
It will take Nationalism to bring about the freedom of the Afro-Americans in this country.

America is just as much a Colonial power as England and France ever was. In fact, America is more so a Colonial power than they, because she is a hypocritical Colonial power behind it.
What do you call second class citizenship? Why thats colonialisation. Second class citizenship is nothing more than 20th century slavery'.

MALCOM X

Must be another one of those Obama diversions

Please, leave "us" out of it, just speak for yourself. ;)

The only hope (and yes, it was vestigial) I had last go-round was that he really wasn't another typical politician, but he's obliterated even that.

Truthfully, the only hope I have now is that he won't win another term.

No, but our concerns for such people should be voluntary and not mandated by some government credo. A failure to launch on somebody's part does not constitute an emergency on my part. If it's my own kid I'll do what I can to help him or her, otherwise good luck out there.

I believe I know where Obama was going with his comment.

From "The Political Economy of Socialism", by Branko Horvat...
"Excessive disparities in income distribution emerging from private ownership are alleged by proponents of this system to lead to social instability that requires costly corrective measures in the form of social welfare and redistributive taxation and heavy administrative costs to administer them while weakening the incentive to work, inviting dishonesty and increasing the likelihood of tax evasion while reducing the overall efficiency of the market economy and necessitating government regulation over markets"

It's a springboard for his socialistic ideology on the free market. Look for HUGE changes if he's re-elected...changes for the bad.

Thanks for clarifying.

We heard about the coming socialism, sharia law, repeal of the second amendment and all sorts of other scary stuff in 08. It didn't happen. Now it's "wait till he wins a second term, THEN you'll see!!"
Just wait! Just wait! :rolleyes:

And yet......
If Obama does get re-elected, and then this massive fundamental transformation that he promised comes about, people like you will be say, " What did you expect? Anyone could have connected the dots and seen clearly where he was going....."
Second-guessing is easy

The saddest chapter in the whole B.O. induced demise of the USA will be that he likely will not be President when the house of cards comes tumbling down.

Whoever is President after B.O.'s second term, Hillary,... some currently unknown Republican..., whoever it is, will have inherited a $25T or $30T debt and a completely hopeless situation. B.O., after having blamed everything on Bush for 8 years, will then squeeze out from under the situation and be able to blame someone else that comes after him.

He will be sitting in his TajMahal Library, built by all his Kool Aid drinkers watching everything crumbling around him while he shrugs his shoulders and claims that he had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Nope. Not me. To the best of my recollection I'm the only regular poster here who's called him a pussy. There won't be a massive fundamental transformation under Obama or anybody else. The wall st. maggots are still walking around free. Gitmo is open and thriving, the "healthcare" bill has thrown us a few little bones and thrown the insurance companies dry aged filet mignon. He's still a pussy. It's easy to pigeonhole anyone who's not a teabagger, isn't it?

He WILL be reelected and he WILL still be blaming Bush. He has yet to come to the realization that the guy in the mirror has anything at all to do with it.

I wouldn't be so sure of re-election just yet. Wait for the debates...Mitt MAY be able to knock him down a notch or three.

I hope so, but I can't see B.O. losing given that he has the biggest free campaign tool that you could have, the biased mainstream media.

To win, he must keep every vote he got in 2008. He certainly is not picking up many new voters. He will lose if enough people regret their 2008 vote ( and the dead and illegals do not vote in droves.)

It seems enough people are disenchanted with the hope and change thing that it may be a close contest, as long as Mitt doesn't have any skeletons (or extra wives) hidden in his closet. :)

Romney's tax returns don't show that there's a recession.

And somehow, in your mind that is a reason not to vote for him?

"look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own."

Translation: "They have the loot. You want the loot. Ill be your middle man and get you their loot. Vote for Obama."

What if I'm not successful? Did I do that on my own? Or can I blame others?

MV

Thumbs up for your honesty.

Thanks. I don't like Kool Aid. Anybody's.

Now now, that would have earned you a reprimand if BC were still mod;) - he gave me one a couple years back, just for insinuating with the Wizard of Oz reference, that Nancy Pelosi was a word associated with a female dog, without even actually using said word.

As for the healthcare bill - thank you, someone else DOES understand what that bill actually did.

Know how to eat an elephant Dude?

Yeah, sort of like the old "Protection" rackets. It sure looks like Jeff Imelt paid HIS protection money.

I collected a bunch of those sillyazz demerits for using the proper anatomical terminology as adjectives. Take for example the word 'sphincter'. There is on on each end of the digestive system and a bunch in between. The mod at the time, perhaps due to his own anatomical shortcomings, could focus his attention on only one. Appropriately for him.

Funny how he knew which muscle group I was referencing though I wasn't specific.

Perhaps one of his was overly tight.

look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.
 

He's certainly speaking from a point of experience. :rolleyes:

It's real easy for folks who have never had to figure out how to make payroll, shuffle around accounts payable depending on the week's receivables, put their own capital at risk for improvements, put their own paycheck on hold to make the numbers work within their lender's covenants, etc. to point the finger of shame while writing and passing the very bills that make things more difficult for us and coming up with new and exciting ways to extract more tax revenues due to their inability to balance the books. GAAT in government? Pffft. Goverment accounting make Arthur Anderson look comparatively responsible.

He sure makes it easy to not vote for him. Which is by no means an endorsement for anyone else.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^66
theres an igmo who has the current guy mixed up with the retarded monkey with the unibrow.

It's a given that it will be a close contest. The mainstream media, voting fraud and possibly another Bush/Gore legal battle as in Florida 2000, will guarantee B.O. a second term.

If you're NOT successful you still win. Just answer one of B.O.'s radio ads where he's begging you to apply for food stamps.

I really like the new Mitt as typified in his recent Irwin, PA speech. He is on the attack; not defensive. If this is the Mitt we see from now on, I don't fear the election. He is showing the contrast between himself and President Obama in terms of the vision of America--A country made great because of government, or a country made great because the people were free to follow their own pursuits. It could be close, but it could be a landslide.

Here's an inventor ...

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7d0eyQ2wh1rbxfido1_1280.jpg

LOL