This Column Should End O'bama's Chance Of Re-election - Selling Hopium To The Media and The Masses!

[Selene]

KASS column: Who else, Mr. President

Posted: July 19, 2012 - 1:59pm

By JOHN KASS

When President Barack Obama hauled off and slapped American small-business owners in the mouth the other day, I wanted to dream of my father. But I didn't have to close my eyes to see my dad. I could do it with my eyes open.

All I had to do was think of the driveway of our home, and my dad's car gone before dawn, that old white Chrysler with a push-button transmission. It always started, but there was a hole in the floor and his feet got wet in the rain. So he patched it with concrete mix and kept on driving it to the little supermarket he ran with my Uncle George.

He'd return home long after dark, physically and mentally exhausted, take a plate of food, talk with us for a few minutes, then flop in that big chair in front of the TV. Even before his cigarette was out, he'd begin to snore.

The next day he'd wake up and do it again. Day after day, decade after decade. Weekdays and weekends, no vacations, no time to see our games, no money for extras, not even for McDonald's. My dad and Uncle George, and my mom and my late Aunt Mary, killing themselves in their small supermarket on the South Side of Chicago.

There was no federal bailout money for us. No Republican corporate welfare. No Democratic handouts. No bipartisan lobbyists working the angles. No Tony Rezkos. No offshore accounts. No Obama bucks.

Just two immigrant brothers and their families risking everything, balancing on the economic high wire, building a business in America. They sacrificed, paid their bills, counted pennies to pay rent and purchase health care and food and not much else. And for their troubles they were muscled by the politicos, by the city inspectors and the chiselers and the weasels, all those smiling extortionists who held the government hammer over all of our heads.

I thought about this after I heard what Obama told a campaign crowd the other day, speaking about business owners and why they were successful.

You didn't get there on your own; Obama said.

If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.

If you've got a business, you didn't build that? Somebody else made that happen?

Somebody else, Mr. President? Who, exactly? Government?

One of my earliest memories as a boy at the store was that of the government men coming from City Hall. One was tall and beefy. The other was wiry. They wanted steaks.

We didn't eat red steaks at home or yellow bananas. We took home the brown bananas and the brown steaks because we couldn't sell them. But the government men liked the big, red steaks, the fat rib-eyes two to a shrink-wrapped package.

You could put 20 or so in a shopping bag.

Thanks, Greek,they'd say. That was government.

We didn't go to movies or out to restaurants. Everything went into the business. Uncle George and dad never bought what they could not afford. The store employed people, and the workers fed their families and educated their children and put them through college. They were good people, all of them. We worked together and worked hard, but none worked harder than the bosses.

It's the same story with so many other businesses in America, immigrants and native-born.

The entrepreneurs risk everything, their homes, their children's college funds, their hearts, all for a chance at the dream: independence, and a small business of their own.

When I was grown and gone from home, my parents finally managed to save a little money. After all those years of hard work and denying themselves things, they had enough to buy a place in Florida. Dad died only a few years later. You wouldn't call them rich. But Obama might.

Obama's changed. Gone is that young knight drawing the sword from the stone, selling Hopium to the adoring media, preaching an end to the broken politics of the past. These days, he wears a new persona: the multimillionaire with the Chicago clout, playing the class warrior, fighting for that second term.

And he offers an American dream much different from my father's. Open your eyes and you can see it too. He stands there at the front of the mob, in his shirt sleeves, swinging that government hammer, exhorting the crowd to use its votes and take what it wants.

<img src="http://analytics.apn...15/E/prod/AT/A" />

[sbeaulieu]

Excellent piece, Adam. I'm sure there are thousands of such stories in our corner of the world. It amazes me that people put their hearts and souls to become self sufficient, don't complain, and for years keep marching the same tune to support their families. And though it is the American dream, we're waking up to a terrible reality. I hope this gets good circulation.

~ Shane

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Adam,

That's a helluvan article. It deserves a little more attention. Here is a video of John Kass talking about it (the video doesn't embed, sorry):

Kass on small business owners

And here is the original link to Kass's article:

Who else, Mr. President?

John Kass

July 18, 2012

The Chicago Tribune

You know when Obama has lost this particular newspaper, he's in trouble. I don't want to sing victory yet, but this is a very good sign of his upcoming political demise.

Obama simply forgets that small businesses pay on both sides of the table top--above the table and below it. The mob gets theirs. The politicians get theirs. The IRS gets theirs. And the small businesses get screwed.

I bet you with all his spin doctoring and Lakoff-based neuroscientific framing and storytelling, Obama's people are simply too arrogant and class warfare oriented to realize that if you want a victim image to play to the crowd, the small business owner screwed by thugs working for crooks and politicians is one of the most powerful story images you can conjure up.

And it's already in the mainstream at that. You don't even need to popularizre this storyline. It's in almost every book, movie and TV show where small businesses are portrayed. All you have to do is tell this story and link Obama's words to it. There are so many connections, the image sticks to his words like glue.

This is pure Kryptonite for Obama's Superman storyline.

If you want to see proof of the efficacy of this image when it is given in a story the way Kass did it, go to the Tribune link and look at the comments. You will see a pattern. There will be one poster agreeing fully with Kass (often briefly giving his or her own story) and then 3 or 4 comments indented under it, sniping on it while disagreeing with Kass. It's one after another like that. Obviously, the main comment posters are spontaneous and the secondary commenters are damage control from the Soros machine, and most likely paid. The impressive thing is the sheer number of posts forming that pattern.

Oh...

And there's one other thing. I have always disliked the term "Kass" because it was an attempt by Perigo to inject it in O-Land discourse as a jargon term he came up with (standing for "Kick Ass"). I remember almost falling off my chair laughing when Jonathan, lampooning this, came out with, "Kass me, you fool."

Well now the term has another, much more noble origin. I don't know anything about John Kass, but I really like his article. It's pure Kass.

Michael

[Robert Campbell]

What I like about Kass is his merciless dissection of Chicago politics.

He knows all the ins and outs of The Chicago Way. And he refuses to accept that any government has to function like this.

This column deserves the widest possible circulation.

I didn't know, till I read this piece, where his last name comes from. It's originally from Greek and much abbreviated.

Robert Campbell

[Selene]

Michael:

Thanks.

This column is devastating in its clarity that cuts directly to what we all know to be true.

An additional factor which I am including in my networking e-mails with the links is the following:

Since I value you as a friend, I would like you to read this article with an open mind. This Chicago Columnist AND his newspaper were O'bama supporters in 2008..."Chicago Tribune endorses Obama. First Democrat to get Trib presidential nod." http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/chicago_tribune_endorses_obama.html

I love to use negative evidence.

Robert:

Yes, like many immigrants, they had the Ellis Island Bris**** performed on their names.

He is a remarkable reporter.

****[The brit milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה‎ [b'rīt mī'lā], Ashkenazi pronunciation, bris milôh, "covenant of circumcision"; Yiddish pronunciation, bris) is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 7-day-old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal (seudat mitzvah).]

Adam

[Robert Campbell]

Nope, you don't have to be Jewish, to have undergone the Ellis Island bris.

Robert Campbell

[9thdoctor]

[George H. Smith]

Has anyone noticed the similarity between Obama's now-notorious statement and the views expressed by Elizabeth Warren? Her views have been discussed several times on OL, e.g.:

http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11207entry143490

Ghs

[Mikee]

Thomas Sowell noticed.

[George H. Smith]

Thomas Sowell noticed.

Good article by Sowell.

After bringing up Warren again, I began to wonder if people had invented humorous Indian names for her. Sure enough, there are tons of them on the Internet, proving once again that if something can be said, it almost certainly has been said on the Internet. Here are some examples:

•She Will Sioux

•Stands with a Writ.

•Hunts at Whole Foods

•Chief Full-of-Lies

•Running Joke

It appears that those who coin these jabs have been accused of being racist toward Indians.

Ghs

[9thdoctor]

She Will Sioux

Stands with a Writ.

Hunts at Whole Foods

Chief Full-of-Lies

Running Joke

How about "Lies Through Teeth"?

[Selene]

By O'bama's fucked up marxist logic, when the false Cherokee Squaw, Elizabeth Warren, has an orgasm, clearly, she cannot take credit for the orgasm.

So, any thoughts on who we can give credit to for her orgasms?

I mean, remember what the dumbest Vice President, Joe "the plagiarist" Biden said about his marxist master O'biwan!

Adam

[Selene]

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's a very funny analysis by Glenn Beck (from his radio show) of Obama's defense against Romney's ads using Obama's "You Didn't Build That" phrase.



Unbelievable.

I think the Obama people are in a bubble so much they don't see what they're doing--allied, of course, to their arrogance in thinking they know far better what's good for your life than you do.

But I believe part of this mistake is blindness. A real mistake, not a fully aware manipulation.

This is an example of switching the story with reality--an epistemological error. In the Progressive storyline (a la Lakoff), the good guys grew up in nurturing households with shared responsibilities, so they have empathy as a primary. As opposed to the conservative bad guy storyline who, according to Lakoff, grew up in a strict father household and has obedience to authority from a self-responsibility view as a primary and blindness to the suffering to others.

I think the Obama folks are seeing this kind of intent (false dichotomy anyone?) so much, they literally don't know how Obama's words sound to the general public. And they literally don't know how they screwed their own ad up.

They hear Obama's soundbite in an Obama ad and these same words in the same audio mean the opposite to them in a Romney ad (so Romney to them is making a "false accusation"). And they think the public hears the same dog-whistle from the same ghost they do.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's a discussion of this on The Blaze:

Incredible New Obama Ad Tries to Prove Romney Misquoted Obama…by Playing the Exact Quote Romney Used

What a mess.

Michael

[Robert Campbell]

Has anyone noticed the similarity between Obama's now-notorious statement and the views expressed by Elizabeth Warren?

The Scott Brown campaign has also noticed.

Robert Campbell

[Robert Campbell]

They hear Obama's soundbite in an Obama ad and these same words in the same audio mean the opposite to them in a Romney ad (so Romney to them is making a "false accusation"). And they think the public hears the same dog-whistle from the same ghost they do.

Michael,

I'd have thought "You didn't build that" would be the occasion for pretty desperate bullshitting, on the part of the Obama campaign.

But what they're doing isn't coming across as bullshitting. It's coming across as complete incomprehension.

I doubt that their media allies have all failed to comprehend. But that's a different issue.

Robert Campbell

[Brant Gaede]

They hear Obama's soundbite in an Obama ad and these same words in the same audio mean the opposite to them in a Romney ad (so Romney to them is making a "false accusation"). And they think the public hears the same dog-whistle from the same ghost they do.

Michael,

I'd have thought "You didn't build that" would be the occasion for pretty desperate bullshitting, on the part of the Obama campaign.

But what they're doing isn't coming across as bullshitting. It's coming across as complete incomprehension.

I doubt that their media allies have all failed to comprehend. But that's a different issue.

Robert Campbell

Maybe it's all about "contextual truth" and "arbitrary assertion"? Run those by the Obamians.

--Brant

I'm trying to help them, really (smirk)

[Selene]

What's the difference between a calm and cool Barack Obama, and a rattled and worried Barack Obama? Four words, it turns out.

"You didn't build that" is swelling to such heights that it has the president somewhere unprecedented: on defense. Mr. Obama has felt compelled—for the first time in this campaign—to cut an ad in which he directly responds to the criticisms of his now-infamous speech, complaining his opponents took his words "out of context."

That ad follows two separate ones from his campaign attempting damage control. His campaign appearances are now about backpedaling and proclaiming his love for small business. And the Democratic National Committee produced its own panicked memo, which vowed to "turn the page" on Mr. Romney's "out of context . . . BS"—thereby acknowledging that Chicago has lost control of the message.

The Obama campaign has elevated poll-testing and focus-grouping to near-clinical heights, and the results drive the president's every action: his policies, his campaign venues, his targeted demographics, his messaging. That Mr. Obama felt required—teeth-gritted—to address the "you didn't build that" meme means his vaunted focus groups are sounding alarms.

The obsession with tested messages is precisely why the president's rare moments of candor—on free enterprise, on those who "cling to their guns and religion," on the need to "spread the wealth around"—are so revealing. They are a look at the real man. It turns out Mr. Obama's dismissive words toward free enterprise closely mirror a speech that liberal Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren gave last August.

Ms. Warren's argument—that government is the real source of all business success—went viral and made a profound impression among the liberal elite, who have been pushing for its wider adoption. Mr. Obama chose to road-test it on the national stage, presumably thinking it would underline his argument for why the wealthy should pay more. It was a big political misstep, and now has the Obama team seriously worried.

Associated Press/Don Petersen [What an angry bitter man underneath that mask]

The president at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va., July 13.

And no wonder. The immediate effect was to suck away the president's momentum. Mr. Obama has little positive to brag about, and his campaign hinges on keeping negative attention on his opponent. For months, the president's team hammered on Mr. Romney's time at Bain, his Massachusetts tenure, his tax returns. "You didn't build that" shifted the focus to the president, and his decision to respond to the criticisms has only legitimized them and guaranteed they continue.

The Obama campaign's bigger problem, both sides are now realizing, is that his words go beyond politics and are more devastating than the Romney complaints that Mr. Obama is too big-government oriented or has mishandled the economy. They raise the far more potent issue of national identity and feed the suspicion that Mr. Obama is actively hostile to American ideals and aspirations. Republicans are doing their own voter surveys, and they note that Mr. Obama's problem is that his words cause an emotional response, and that they disturb voters in nearly every demographic.

It's why Mr. Obama's "out of context" complaints aren't getting traction. The Republican National Committee's response to that gripe was to run an ad that shows a full minute of Mr. Obama's rant at the Roanoke, Va., campaign event on July 13. In addition to "you didn't build that," the president also put down those who think they are "smarter" or "work harder" than others. Witness the first president to demean the bedrock American beliefs in industriousness and exceptionalism. The "context" only makes it worse.

This gets to the other reason the Obama campaign is rattled: "You didn't build that" threatens to undermine its own argument against Mr. Romney. Mr. Obama has been running on class warfare and the notion that Mr. Romney is a wealthy one-percenter out of touch with average Americans. Yet few things better symbolize the average American than a small-business owner. To the extent that Mr. Romney is positioning himself as champion of that little business guy and portraying Mr. Obama as something alien, he could flip the Obama narrative on its head.

It would be all the more potent were Mr. Romney to use "you didn't build that" to launch his own economic narrative. One unexpected side effect of "you didn't build that" is that it has emboldened the GOP to re-embrace and glory in free enterprise (so abused since the financial crash). And the president's disparaging attack on business has also made voters more open to a defense of it.

Meaning, it's a perfect time to marry emotion with some policy. Mr. Romney has explained why the president doesn't get it. The next step is to explain why his own tax policies, regulatory proposals, and entitlement plans are the answer for those who actually do the building. The president is on defense. We'll see if Mr. Romney can keep him there.

Write to kim@wsj.com

[Selene]

So if the person who built their business was told by the marxist in chief, "...that, you didn't build that!" would the following statement come to the same conclusion...

[Selene]

he Republican candidate's campaign has put up 13 billboards across the Orlando area displaying the message, "I built my business," MyFoxOrlando reports. The billboards are timed with the president's arrival later Thursday for a pair of Florida campaign stops.

"We did build our own business," business owner Tanya Burns, featured in one of the billboards, told MyFoxOrlando.

Burns said she was frustrated over Obama's remarks earlier this month in Virginia.

In that address, Obama suggested business owners owe their success in large part to government investment in infrastructure and other areas.

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. ... Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges," Obama said at the time. "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Obama has since argued that the four most controversial words were in reference to roads and bridges -- not businesses themselves -- but Republicans have disputed that and taken issue with the overall tenor of the speech.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/02/romney-camp-greets-obama-in-florida-with-built-my-business-billboards/#ixzz22RL8ig9A

[rhartford]

. . . 13 billboards across the Orlando area displaying the message, "I built my business," . . .

As important as those billboards are, I would like to see the next step.

Not only did people build their businesses, but they and their hard-working private-sector employees paid for the infrastructure as well. The fully private sector pays into government coffers, the public sector and government contractors take money out of those coffers (although giving some of it back in taxes.)

[Selene]

. . . 13 billboards across the Orlando area displaying the message, "I built my business," . . .

As important as those billboards are, I would like to see the next step.

Not only did people build their businesses, but they and their hard-working private-sector employees paid for the infrastructure as well. The fully private sector pays into government coffers, the public sector and government contractors take money out of those coffers (although giving some of it back in taxes.)

Robert:

Completely agree and that point is made by me at every opportunity as I am at a number of community and business meetings every week.

I drive home the clear fact that through gas taxes, property taxes and assessments, we, private citizens build the infrastructure not government. Private publicly bid contracts are awarded to private firms.

It is all citizen and individually based.

Adam

[Selene]

Hammer this incompetent bastard.  Hit him in the gut and do not let him breath from today until election day.

If "Goody Two Shoes" does not go after this incompetent marxist like he went after Newt and Santorum he will probably not win.

Great new ad, at least someone is thinking in the campaign...

 

 

[Mikee]

Adam,

Any comment on this analysis: http://www.thedailyb...-landslide.html

I have a co-worker who is pretty sharp, not an obama supporter, but believes obama wins by a landslide as well. I don't know what to say. I don't think the majority is a bunch of fools but perhaps the deck is stacked...