ROANOKE, Va. -- "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." President Obama spoke those words at a campaign rally in Roanoke, Va., on July 13.
The President's comment has gone viral. It's a slice of sound bite heaven to radio and TV commentators, as well as campaign managers, on the other end of the political spectrum. It has the business community--including many readers of CSP Daily News--incensed and offended. It's the stuff of political galvanization. He handed a gift to his rivals that, should he win or lose, will cling to him like "read my lips" for the first President Bush and "heck of a job, Brownie" for the second.
But now flash back about a month ago. Remember how MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell was quick to take Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Wawa comment out of context? Romney had expressed mock amazement at Wawa's sandwich-ordering kiosk to make a point about private-sector innovation versus governmental bureaucracy. "It's amazing," Romney said. "You have a touchtone keypad, and you touch that, touch this, go pay the cashier, there's your sandwich."
Out of context, it suggested a rich guy out of touch with the people and their everyday experiences. And his opponents seized upon that to try to make political hay, although many would say unsuccessfully.
(Click here for CSP Daily News coverage of Romney's Wawa remarks.)
In context, however, it was a valid rhetorical device that the candidate used to contrast two political points of view--one that says government should get out of the way of business, and one that believes government must tighten control of business.
There is the temptation to do the same thing with Obama's "You didn't build that!" comment. In isolation, it exhibits an astonishing lack of respect for success, entrepreneurialism and individual achievement.
But if we expect Romney's Wawa comments to be understood in context, we should extend the same courtesy to the President's comments at the Roanoke Fire Station (click here for the full text of his speech).
In context, he was suggesting that many people are involved in a successful business. That society and government provide an infrastructure without which a business could not succeed. And that's most certainly and obviously true. Everyone must acknowledge that success is built on those who came before, by those who inspired the passion--such as teachers and mentors--by those who built the roads to enable the business to operate and by those partners and employees that assisted and supported a business along the way to success--from the janitor, to the retail associate, to the customer service representative, to the suppliers to the most senior vice president.
Even in context, however, the President's argument--at best--was still poorly made. The comments were divisive and dismissive and exhibited a lack of understanding of how business works and how success happens.
It leaves no room for the likes of Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the countless other less famous but nonetheless creative, individual entrepreneurial forces [on a professional note, CSP's own Paul Reuter comes to mind] that make up the history of American business. It leaves no room for Jefferson Green, who ran the Southland Ice Dock in Dallas and in 1927 realized that customers sometimes needed to buy bread, milk and eggs after the local grocery stores were closed, giving birth to the convenience store industry.
It leaves no room for the unsung business hero who pours his or her--and often his or her family's--blood, sweat, tears and money into a business, big or small. The kind of person who is the first to arrive and the last to leave. And it leaves no room for the rank-and-file employee who strives on a daily basis for personal success, for getting the job done, whatever that may be.
President Obama often talks about telling a better story. Well, he should tell a better one to the American people to encourage, rather than discourage striving for success.
At a time of economic distress and massive unemployment, a president needs to lead through inspiration. At a time when he should be bolstering confidence, he's undermining it.
Rather than cutting down entrepreneurs whose ideas give birth to companies that employ many people, he should be building up the passion to take risks on a new idea, to start a business, to fill a demand. Instead, he is essentially saying "don't bother; who do you think you are?" And he suggests that those who succeed are self-centered braggarts.
His valid point got lost in the political wind. No one succeeds on their own. But in attempting to score a political point, he missed an opportunity to lead…and to inspire.
Please comment below or email Greg Lindenberg at glindenberg@cspnet.com.
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