Mitt Romney has spent the past ten days hammering President Barack Obama for saying “Let me tell you something…if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Unfortunately, the Romney campaign is taking Obama’s quote completely out of context by splicing together two separate parts of the president’s speech, to make Obama sound as if he was making a direct attack on entrepreneurs.
Amusingly, we have now learned that the Republican candidate himself once made a remarkably similar comment during the 2002 Winter Olympics. In his speech at the games’ opening ceremonies as their chief executive, Romney told the assembled athletes:
“You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power…All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them.”
Video of his remark is below, courtesy of NBC News:
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In full context, of course, Romney’s comment isn’t offensive at all.
You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities.
When selectively edited in the same manner that Romney’s campaign has edited President Obama’s words, however, they appear damning. It just goes to show that, in the YouTube era, as long as political campaigns have an intern who knows how to use Final Cut Pro, they need never lack for attack material.
