July 25, 2012 08:16 PM UTC

"You didn't build that." - The quote/gaffe of the 2012 election?

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• by: ellbee

After a month where, even though he outspent Romney nearly 2-1 (nearly 4-1 if you’re just counting media) and didn’t move the needle, President Obama seems to have created the gaffe that might signal the end of his Presidency next January.

“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. 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.”

The Obama camp is complaining about context, generally a sure sign you’re in trouble.  But, does context even matter with this quip?  Romney responds:

“The context is worse than the quote,” Romney told CNBC, in an interview that was tweeted out by the Republican National Committee.

“The context, he says, you know, you think you’ve been successful because you’re smart, but he says a lot of people are smart. You think you’ve been successful because you work hard, a lot of people work hard. This is an ideology which says hey, we’re all the same here, we ought to take from all and give to one another and that achievement, individual initiative and risk-taking and success are not to be rewarded as they have in the past,” Romney said. “It’s a very strange and, in some respects, foreign to the American experience type of philosophy.”

Here are some samples:

From the brilliant Michael Ramirez:

Poll after poll suggest that Obama is underwater to Romney on the economy, and this quote certainly can’t be helping with most business-type folks.

My question is this – does this statement have the possibility of being the bumper-sticker slogan that no candidate wants to give the other side?  If Romney wins, will the month of July be looked at as a turning point?

Or is it just a topic du jour that will be lost as the news cycle continues on?

Whether or not you agree with the President regarding what he said, does this particular statement have the possibility of becoming THE anti-Obama slogan this election cycle?

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