Romney Lying About Welfare Reform

[D.Turtle]

I don't think it is. People can misinterpret that by accident, not just on purpose. Sure, the meaning from context is clear to you. That's because you already think that you know what he was going to say.

Someone with different expectations who reads the same words sees it the other way around. The text itself is ambiguous.

The meaning is obvious from context - he is talking about people getting help from others and having access to infrastructure before the one sentence that can - in isolation - be misinterpreted, and he is talking about infrastructure making success possible after that one sentence.

The text itself - in context - is not ambiguous.

Dude. You're assuming that people actually saw the speech he gave, instead of the distorted one Fox and other news media created, and then which the other parts of the mainstream news media addressed.

The MSM can be as factually accurate as they want to, but still present a picture of the truth that is misrepresented by people.

Thats exactly what I mean. Parts of the media deliberately distort what was said, rip things out of context, and thereby make it possible for (somewhat) reasonable people to be mislead. The MSM is absolutely horrid at fighting these attempts at distortions and misrepresenations being thrown about (mostly by Republicans, but with some stuff from Democrats too). In fact, the US MSM does not even see it as its role to fight that type of thing.

The Republicans are trying to find out just how far they can go with that type of thing - and I'm very interested in seeing just exactly how much they can get away with.

[Lord MJ]

The Romney campaign is not letting up on the "You Didn't Build That" issue. A bakery owner refused a visit from Joe Biden over that. And I believe the same owner later appeared at a campaign event by Paul Ryan and said to the effect "Obama said that if you have a business you didn't build it, well Mr. President we're here to say we did build it!"

I don't think this is going to go away. Obama released an ad a while ago, but it doesn't seem to making a dent. Maybe he should appear on TV and explain himself, since this is going to be hammered over and over and over again.

[Lord MJ]

And it appears that "We Built It!" Is going to be one of the GOP National Convention Themes next week.

[D.Turtle]

Of course certain people are going to hammer it in all the time, and a certain amount of people are going to believe it.

Now, do you think it will HELP Obama if he goes on and addresses those people or not?

In my opinion, it won't help him, since this election does not seem to hinge on convincing people (almost everyone has made their mind up on who to vote for), but instead on getting the supporters out to vote (and having those votes counted). This thing is only going to seem convincing to people who weren't going to vote for Obama anyway.

[Lord MJ]

I think there are enough people that were undecided, or enough people that voted for Obama in 2008 but are not shifting to the Republicans in 2012 that "You Didn't Build That" is a triggering factor for some of these people.

[Block]

I think there are enough people that were undecided, or enough people that voted for Obama in 2008 but are not shifting to the Republicans in 2012 that "You Didn't Build That" is a triggering factor for some of these people.

Frankly the only people that seem to be affected by that statement are people who already believed the "OMG socialism!" bullshit that was coming out of the Right anyways. I know you're going to argue your MBA circles, blah blah, but stats on Gallup.com among other places show that those type of people claim to be independant but are actually overwhelmingly Republican.

[Lord MJ]

Also would like to add that there is speculation that Missouri a state that is currently considered a Romney lock could be taken by Obama due to Akin's comments. Of course "you didn't build that" could neutralize that possibility.

[Block]

It's also beyond ironic that Paul Ryan, who hasn't earned a single fucking thing on his own in his life is the one trying to hammer Obama on the you didn't build that crap. Biden should come out at the beginning of the debate and just read Paul Ryan's resume and ask Ryan where he'd be without government assistance.