OUTRAGE – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  The sense of outrage at President Obama over his disparaging remarks about successful Americans continues to grow.  It is spreading rapidly across the internet, although I'm sure Obama's coachmen in the mainstream media will try to control the damage.

To remind our readers, this, among other things, is what Obama said: 

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.

In other words, there are no dreamers, no heroes, no risk takers, no relentless builders who fail and come back and fail again and come back again.  Obama gives us the socialist ideal.  It's "the people" who built your business, fella.  And if you murder someone, it's society that pulled the trigger. 

It reminds us of Obama's sneering remark during the 2008 campaign about Americans "who cling to their guns and their religion."  Incredible, but the man got elected president after saying that. 

Jennifer Rubin, a conservative blogger at WaPo, writes:

I don’t think any president or major presidential candidate has ever articulated this view. It’s not very far from that to “property is theft,” after all. Notice how un-nuanced is his statement — no recognition that entrepreneurship is in fact the engine of growth or that government activity is not a undiluted good. 

And...

Obama’s words are emblematic of a president blinded by ideology. If prosperity for all requires the rich to also get richer? Forget it. It is a sentiment that Obama can no longer conceal, and which, if followed, leads us to a poorer, less free and less dynamic society — Europe, in other words.

And...

I do wonder what responsible, middle-of-the-road Democrats must be thinking. Did they sign up for repeal of welfare reform, antagonism toward wealth for the sake of antagonism, fiscal insanity, and vitriol on a scale never seen before? I have to think that this is not what they want for their party and country. In good conscience, how can they root for four more years of this?

COMMENT:  Obama's comments lead to another conclusion, one I've come to slowly, but irrevocably, during his years as president – Barack Obama isn't very smart.  He's not a learning man.  He absorbs only his own ego.  He may be "bright" in the statistical, aptitude-test way, but he can't apply it.  He reminds me, in a way, of Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956.  Like Obama, Stevenson sounded good, even sounded intellectual, which is what the chattering classes love.  They're more interested in how someone sounds than in what he actually says.  But when Stevenson died, the only book on his bookstand was the Social Register.  He was a narrow and, yes, mildly bigoted man who had no ability to grow.  He became UN ambassador under Kennedy, a job for which he was adequate.

Obama is showing us, once again, how narrow he is, how little he has grown, and how much contempt he has for his own nation.  I agree with Jennifer Rubin.  What are responsible Democrats thinking?  Are they proud of this man?  Or are they just going along with him out of a kind of social fear?

Four more years?  Four more months is too much.

July 17,  2012