UNI88 wrote:youngterrier wrote:2 things:
1) Said quotes aren't necessarily out of context, granted the rationalization and continued quotation makes it sound more reasonable, but there's a difference between removing a rationalization and spinning it for your intended political purposes and completely making up a gaffe that isn't there.
2)I will accept that I'm somewhat wrong here from my original position
Thank you for reading my comments, responding rationally and adjusting your position as a result.
I will disagree in that I don't think that Romney's campaign has "made up a gaffe that isn't there." Obama said what he said, Romney has simply taken words directly from his statement and is beating him over the head with it. I don't see how this is different than what Obama has done to Romney. From the Wall Street Journal:
"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans," he observed, and many of them attribute their wealth and success to their own intelligence and hard work. But the self-made man is an illusion: "There are a lot of smart people out there," he explained. "Let me tell you something—there are a whole bunch of hard-working people out there.
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help," he continued. "There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53684.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I understand the context of what Obama was trying to say in this instance and I don't disagree with it just as I understand the context of what Romney has tried to say and I don't disagree with many of those either. It's unfortunate that they're going after each other with spin and soundbites but they're both doing it. Neither side can claim the high ground on this issue.
I do that on occasion
but anyway, if you would look at the speech, what I'm trying to say is that by taking only a snippet of the soundbyte, you change the actual meaning of the quote.
For instance, Mitt Romney likes to fire people. On the surface, that sounds abhorrent, but given his rationalization it sounds respectable. He still would stand by the comment.
On the flip side, the Obama quote is being manipulated to totally misrepresent what he said (heck even in that article, I would say there should be comma after bridges, not a period). It's being spun to say that business people didn't build their business but the original intent of the quote was to say that business people didn't build roads.
So, at least to me, that's a little more extreme of spin to the point at which of misinformation on the part of the Romney camp, especially when they are trying to base their campaign, no matter how temporary, on said quote. (You won't see any official Obama campaign slogans of "We don't like being fired" like the Romney camps "We did build that")
No. You're a sheep beacuse you can't ever stop at "Both sides are wrong.". You always have to add the * of the other side being worse.
