President Obama Says Something Stupid

Although I do lean to the democratic side, I promised in the comments of my Hubs about Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum that I am equal opportunity, and that when President Obama says something stupid I will write a Hub about it. President Obama recently said a horribly stupid thing. Therefore, as an honest, equal opportunity Hubber, I must follow through with my promise and write the Hub.

"If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen"

Yes ladies and gentleman, President Obama stated that if you are a business owner, or an entrpenuer, you didn't build it, someone else made it happen.

Now granted, this was in the context of an entire speech about how great America is, and how the infrustructure and governance system that millions of Americans past and present toiled to put into place supports the American Dreams of present day entrepenuers. It is true that most successful business owners in the US wouldn't be successful in other places. Many countries try to stifle innovation in their subjects, destroy creativity, and keep the common man down. The United States gives everyone a chance to try to better themselves.

However, this is an election year. Politicians have to be careful about the way they word things. This one sentence his speech completely destroyed the rest of what he was trying to say. It destroyed the entire point of the speech. Entrepenuers hear this and think they are being belittled, they think the President doesn't believe that they have worked hard for what they have. Aspiring business men and women hear this and are offended, they toil for years trying to create a successful business, and some never succeed.

Americans in general hear this and they are disheartened. They only hear that Dems are for Big Government, and then they hear the Democratic President of the United States state that Government is responsible for all the success in the country. This is not the message that the President needs to be sending during his re-election campaign. 

I truly believe that President Obama was trying to make a valid point about how great our nation is in that the hard work of generations of past Americans has led to an environment where the common man can build a small business and succeed. However, in this age of sound bytes and snippets, any candidate needs to chose all of his words extremely carefully. This phrase taken by itself could easily have cost him the election if it were uttered in October rather than in July (we all know it will be old news by October).

I apologize to all my Republican friends and followers if this wasn't Hub wasn't as critical of President Obama as my previous Hubs have been of the other candidates, but as I openly admit, I am a Democrat, and despite this horrible quote that I mentioned above, I think he is a good man and I would like to see him in the White House for another four year.