The FerengiMedia™ gets a lot of grief (not nearly enough, mind you, but a lot) for either glossing over or outright ignoring the hypocrisy and LIES from the right. And make no mistake, I take my shots where I can. Therefore, when one of them goes off course and admits to gets the actual story (AND gets it right), it should be noted. With that said, take it away, Jake Tapper:
The Romney campaign has been making much out of an out-of-context President Obama quote.
Speaking in Roanoke, Virginia on July 13 about the necessity of government for services such as infrastructure, the president said “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help…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 point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”
The Romney campaign has suggested that the president was telling business owners that they didn’t create their own business, taking the “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that” remark out of context.
In a campaign ad, the Romney campaign spliced out the “roads and bridges” the president seemed to be referring to as “that” when he said “you didn’t build that.”
Tapper goes on to document the latest TV ad, and expose some details regarding the star:
In a new TV ad, Romney features an offended New Hampshire businessman, saying, “My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company?”
The New Hampshire Union Leader’s John DiStato today reports that in 1999 the business in question, Gilchrist Metal, “received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority ‘to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment’…” In addition, in 2011, Gilchrist Metal “received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000 and a smaller, $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008…”
The businessman, Jack Gilchrist, also acknowledged that in the 1980s the company received a U.S. Small Business Administration loan totaling “somewhere south of” $500,000, and matching funds from the federally-funded New England Trade Adjustment Assistance Center.
And what does our offended hero say when called out? C’mon, you know the drill by now!
“I’m not going to turn a blind eye because the money came from the government,” Gilchrest said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m getting some of my tax money back. I’m not stupid, I’m not going to say ‘no.’ Shame on me if I didn’t use what’s available.”
Now, this was a great story – why did it have to be buried on the ABC News blog instead of getting some newscast love? You know, when some people would be WATCHING? Yes, I know how THAT works by now too.
My Ready Room 