Lets assume for a second that perhaps obama meant "roads and bridges" aka "those" when he said "that".
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 point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.
Then becomes:
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. This is a putdown of the intelligence of successful people. Making lights of their efforts, and suggests they are arrogant for having dared to think they deserve some form of credit for their success.
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. This is a putdown of the work ethic of successful people. Making lights of their efforts, and suggests they are arrogant for having dared to think they deserve some form of credit for their success.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. Makes light of the fact that people are responsible for their own success.
There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. pandering to teacher unions
[If you were successful...] 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 those roads and bridges. Somebody else made those roads and bridges 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. Your success is entirely due to the government having allowed you an "amazing american system" and the infrastructure of roads, bridges and the internet.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. whoa, a slight mitigation there, he actually admitted that individual initiative at least plays a component there... But then he clarifies that an equal part of it is "doing things together" which based on the rest of the speech means "government"
if we assume obama's claim of having meant roads and bridges to be true, only the soundbite changes (from "you are not responsible for building your business") and the actual of the content and meaning of the speech remains identical!