Must See Advertising
The Obama for America campaign has a new advertisement that must be seen to be believed. It claims that Obama never said his now famous "somebody else made that happen" line before showing the president saying, you guessed it, the very line.
Over at The Weekly Standard, there is an excellent play-by-play analysis of this truly remarkable piece of political propaganda. Here is an excerpt:
Nevertheless, the Obama campaign, in the ad, says it's not true. "The only problem?," the ad text reads. "That's not what he said." It then turns to Obama, from the same Roanoke campaign speech, who said, "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life."
Which is true. Obama did say that. But he also said the line that Romney says he said-- "If you’ve got a business --you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."
And, in fact, later in the ad the Obama campaign actually plays the clip that Romney quotes of Obama, at about :40 second spot.
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May '10
Re: Must See Advertising
It is Racist to quote Obama!
This reminds me of the Old Martin Short Character on SNL
Re: Must See Advertising
Bill Clinton had trouble with the meaning of "is"; Barack Obama has trouble with the meaning of "he didn't say that."
If they were to enroll in Rhetoric and Great Books at Hillsdale, I am sure that we could help them master the English language.
Re: Must See Advertising
Given the ad, perhaps Obama will just decide to embrace the phrase. I can already imagine the bumper stickers: "Obama: Somebody Else Made That Happen."
Nov '11
Re: Must See Advertising
That Mitt Romney will say anything to get elected is already well known. I didn't need their ad to tell me that.
I will say, however, that this ad shows me that the Obama camp realizes they stepped in it big time.
Sep '10
Re: Must See Advertising
Hope and change is a mighty big rock to land on you.
Mar '11
Re: Must See Advertising
You have hit true desperation when you give up on spin and move on to straight lying
Aug '10
Re: Must See Advertising
I hate to say this, but... I think he may have been misquoted.
If you add in the sentence immediately before the 'You didn't build that" one, you get:
“Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
I saw the clip first before I heard all the criticism, and I interpreted it to mean that you didn't build the bridges and roads that your company uses - not that you didn't build your company.
That said, it's still the same sentiment - that because you need roads and teachers and customers and suppliers and police and firemen ad nauseum, any success you have in life is partly because of them, and therefore this justifies wealth transfer from the successful back to 'society'. This is what progressives really believe, and it's how they justify expropriating wealth from others, and it's complete muddy-headed nonsense.
But as a matter of fairness and accuracy, I do think it's possible that Obama is being slightly misquoted. Of course, that's the world of sound-bite politics and it happens all the time.
Re: Must See Advertising
Dan, I agree Obama could make the argument that the line is being taken out of context even though that isn't my view. But I don't see how Obama can make the argument that he didn't say the line, as his advertisement claims, when, in fact, he did say the line.
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 12:05amApr '11
Re: Must See Advertising
This isn't a broadcast ad. It's a web video designed to persuade people that their friends are dishonest or puppets for the far right (Fox/ Tea Parties/ Koch/ etc.). There's a ton of people who have noted that on facebook, liberal's response has been to simply deny the President said it. If that's what you firmly believe, and you want a video to support your views on facebook, this video would seem to do the job.
It's not great as a persuasion video, but that's not its job. Its job is to dehumanize conservatives in the eyes of their liberal friends. It's an ugly thing, and a foretaste of ugliness to come.
Feb '11
Re: Must See Advertising
If we lived in a world of fairness and accuracy Obama would not be Presdient.
Aug '10
Re: Must See Advertising
I think that's splitting hairs. Romney's ad is claiming that Obama said that you didn't build your own business, and uses that sentence to prove it. Obama says, "That's not what I said". And if you look at the context around the specific quote Romney uses, it seems at least arguable that Obama was actually talking about roads, and not the business.
Even though the sentiment is the same either way, ignoring the context and quoting one specific sentence opens us up to charges that we misquoted him. And indeed, that's what the Obama campaign has pounced on, and he'll have every media outlet backing him up and declaring this a non-issue. It's a bit of an unforced error to give him that 'out' when in fact the entire speech made the same point - that successful businessmen owe their success to the collective as a whole, and therefore should have more of their property taken from them.
Yes, he did say the line in question. But context matters, and in context the subject of the line was perhaps something other than what we're saying it was.
May '10
Re: Must See Advertising
Welcome to post-modern politics. The truth is relative; lying is a matter of perspective.
Nov '11
Re: Must See Advertising
Somebody should post the line from Obama just looped over and over on YouTube.
Sep '10
Re: Must See Advertising
Iowahawk has the best one liner twitter comment on President Obama's comments. I can't reprint here because of the CoC.
Mar '11
Re: Must See Advertising
This is kinda like arguing where Mr Obama was born - futile.
Apr '11
Re: Must See Advertising
If what Obama states is true, then everyone would be equal in business success and no one would go out of business. And if they have all the streets and roads and still can't make it, it is because the successful business people are stealing their share of resources from others.
Obama's whole life had been stealing resources from others. Taking his grandmother's money to go to the best schools and then criticising her for being white. Having his wife have a no show up job at a hospital and taking a lot of money in salary she didn't earn. Being the editor of the Harvard review and actually never doing anything for that perk on his resume. Writing an autobigraphy using fabricated memories to convince people he has a vision. And he probably didn't write the book himself, stealing the profits from the sales from whatever ghost writer he had. Getting a home with special deals the rest of us couldn't get, thus stealing from the residents of Ill.
Most of all, he stole those Greek columns from a lousy stage set.
Unforgivable.
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 12:24amAug '10
Re: Must See Advertising
That's certainly what the other side believes, but I would hope we would adhere to a higher standard.
Also, as a practical matter Democrats can get away with this kind of selective misquoting because they have the media at their backs to play along. Republicans have to be more scrupulous because any possible opening like this will be pounced on.
For example, I'm willing to bet that the various political 'fact checkers' will make the same point and condemn Romney's ad, and then quotes from the fact checkers calling Romney 'misleading' or outright lying will be used in subsequent Obama ads.
It's okay for the grassroots to use that quote and make up all the fun twitter hashtags and photoshops and all that, and it's having a great effect. Romney should have been a bit more careful while making the same point, in my opinion.
Re: Must See Advertising
Dan, good points. Quoting people out of context is an unfair game of gotcha that I agree we should be above playing. That said, I think this line captures the essence of Obama's riff, so it's fair game for Romney to use in my opinion.
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 12:34amJun '12
Re: Must See Advertising
Did we misquote him with Joe the Plumber's "spread-the-wealth around?" Did we misquote Liz Warren's similar rant? And why did it take until today to claim out-of-context, given all the Sunday shows? It's an attempt at spin, and it doesn't hold up.
Nov '10
Re: Must See Advertising
Pseudodionysius
Hope and change is a mighty big rock to land on you. · 54 minutes ago
Ha ha! The coyote in your graphic must be the teleprompter guy.
Edited on July 20, 2012 at 12:46am