IS HE FULLY NUTS, OR ONLY PARTLY? – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  The political world is buzzing about some off-the-wall comments made by President Obama at a campaign stop.  Sometimes the community organizer actually reveals who he really is and what he really believes.  Consider:

President Obama, in a speech to supporters, suggested business owners owe their success to government investment in infrastructure and other projects -- saying “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”

Obama’s comment Friday during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va., came just days after he urged Congress to extend tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration only to families earning less than $250,000 annually -- part of his argument that top earners have an obligation to pay more to trim the deficit.

“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me because they want to give something back,” the president said. “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. 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,” he said. “The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”

COMMENT:  What is so vulgar about that statement is how patronizing it is.  It's as if people don't realize they've been helped, and don't appreciate it.  You'd think, judging by Obama's statement, that all successful people are narrow, selfish, and conceited.  They are not.  They know what a good teacher can do, and they value true public services.

But they also value imagination, enterprise, gutsiness, a willingness to work those extra hours, and a zeal for excellence.  They value risk.  They bounce back from failure.  Many of the most successful people have lived with ridicule, and had their dreams laughed at. 

And how about this line:  "Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."  Is that whacky or what?  It shows a seething resentment toward business, toward entrepreneurship, toward the very elements that create all the jobs out there that are disappearing on Obama's watch.  Companies don't "make money off the Internet."  They make money if they creatively use the internet as a tool to present a product that people want to buy or a service they wish to use.  Apparently, Obama resents the fact that commercial firms use a mechanism that was helped into existence by government research. 

Maybe, according to Obama's logic, we should resent it when private hospitals and physicians use the knowledge gained by military medicine because military medicine, which contributes immensely to medical advance, is financed by the government. 

Obama once again reveals himself to be a true leftist, one who resents anything done by an individual and is suspicious when that individual is successful. 

July 16, 2012