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Star of Romney ad did get federal government help
The Romney camp has been making a lot of noise about an Obama campaign speech in which the President pointed out that those who succeed in this country get help from different sources.
Taking a deceptive view of the President’s speech (i.e. claiming that Obama said that business owners do not in fact create their businesses), the Romney camp is claiming that Obama insults business owners by claiming that they are unable to function without the help of the supposedly intrusive federal government.
The Romney camp is even pushing an ad starring a man, Jack Gilchrist, who supposedly built his business on his own.
According to Think Progress:
In “These Hands,” the Romney campaign repeated the out-of-context quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else did that.” Jack Gilchrist, the owner of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating in Hudson, New Hampshire, incredulously asks, “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? …Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”
You can see the ad here.
And you will also notice something else about it.
The ad is tanking. Badly.
Currently, the dislikes of this ad outnumber the likes by almost over 300.
UPDATE – The dislikes of the ad are now over 1,000 while the likes are slightly over 350.
The rush to dislike this ad may have to do with the recent discovery that Gilchrist actually did benefit from the federal government.
Again according to Think Progress:
The New Hampshire Union Leader reports . . . that Gilchrist benefited from millions of dollars of government loans and contracts to get his business on its feet:
In 1999, 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,” according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report at the time…
Last year, Gilchrist Metal also received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000 and a smaller $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008, according to a government web site that tracks spending.
Gilchrist wisely took advantage of these funds, which help small businesses like his survive in their early years. He also took a U.S. Small Business Administration loan in the late 1980s totaling “somewhere south of” $500,000, plus matching funds from the federally-funded New England Trade Adjustment Assistance Center.
The comments on the ad’s page go back and forth from folks accusing the Romney campaign of lying to others claiming that Obama supporters are deliberately sinking the ad (note – I clicked dislike on the ad and posted it on my facebook page).
However, one thing is clear. If Romney was intending to use Gilchrist as an example of how inaccurate Obama was in his assertion of how the federal government helps businesses, then he failed miserably.
I think for now it’s safe to assume that in the case of this ad, Romney’s distortion of Obama’s speech is backfiring.
20 Comments
All of these rich people are quite happy to take the gubmint’s money when and where possible, else why would they employ all those lobbyists? They just don’t want poor people sharing in the loot.
You built this business. I made millions by bankrupting it and stealing the pensions.
I’m Mitt Romney and I approved this message.
Is everyone posting on FDL these days being paid by Barry O’s reelection team? FYI, h20-carriers, you can write this dreck til election day, it’s not going to influence one person. Voters (ESPECIALLY those under 30) have had 3 1/2 years to reconcile Barry’s performance as President to his campaign promises. Exposing Romney’s weaknesses just won’t matter to these people come election day. Way too many are in worse shape now than they were then. Do you think they’re not painfully aware that way too many of the scoundrals Obama promised to hold accountable are unscathed & living rich. Do you think they’re not aware who Obama is serving?
EW understands, Yves Smith understands, Glenn G understands, so does Matt T. and a host of others. NONE of these strongly principled Bloggers give a hoot about Romney, all of them care dearly about the democratic ideals Barry O. campaigned on and none of them have capitulated to Obama’s bullying tactics. SHAME ON YOU FDL, you were so good.
Well Bailey, to each his own. All I can say is this – you got a decision come November. Either make it or it will be made for you. I am merely writing something which I think needs more attention.
And you think Romney wants to go after bankers and fix the economy? That’s a joke, right?
If you don’t like the subject of this or other posts, you can mosey over to MyFDL and write diaries about whatever you think really needs to be talked about. Your alternative, which is what I suspect you will take, is to wander the threads bitching and moaning.
Me, I think that the only thing FDL really does badly is using a system that doesn’t include an “ignore this user” option that I can use on idiots like you.
I cannot imagine that the “likes” posted on youtube are a representative sample – it is a little like the polls on Fox News.
The danger for the President is that this ad and other comments like it cast Obama is a light that is too easily expanded later on in the campaign. If Obama gets defined with a “government solves all problems” agenda, it opens all sorts of attacks.
No one here will be fooled by this ad but there are a lot of those who are not so wise who will take this as a defining moment and it will color their views.
I just checked, and it’s now 358 likes and 1,010 dislikes.
A minor point of usage: You wanted to say “currently,” not “presently.” “Presently” means soon.
Yes, we ALL have a decision to make. To me it’s simple, histry shows us all politicians say and do whatever they think will get them elected, so being upset because they break campaign promises once elected doesn’t make a lot of sense. On the other hand, voting to reelect someone who refuses to fight for ANY values I believe are critical for the future well being of the Country because his Republican opponent is LIKELY to be worse is irrational. And, importantly to the issue, our Presidents don’t act with absolute power. So, why is it in our best interest to pretend in election years they do.
Isn’t it accepted “Chauncey” Bush couldn’t have dreamed of passing the HCA Obama pushed through? Isn’t it disgraceful how the Democratic Congress we elected in ’08 abdicated to Obama the very same ideals it fought for under Bush? Isn’t the treatment accorded Bradley Manning reason enough to fight against Obama’s reelection? When does it become irresponsible to vote to reelect someone? Is there no limits of power we should expect our elected President to demand of our mega-banks?
WE gave Obama the Presidency AND control of the Senate and the House. That, along with his eloquence and the office’s bully pulpit should have been all he needed to take a middle of the road argument to the American People to right horrendous wrongs of the last 30 years. The Repugs are not the problem, the problem is the spiraling upward redistribution of wealth we’ve seen over the last 30 years that’s emasculated the middle class. Yet, I don’t believe there’s a single reasoning American who believes Obama gives a hoot about this problem.
FYI, This year I’ll vote for Gary Johnson for President and against the reelection of every Incumbent (both Parties) seeking reelection.
Good luck with that.
Who cares?
The Obama campaign has you discussing the efficacy of ads instead of the shit that’s been brought down upon us by both parties…
meh
This guy, and his father, also benefited from a workforce educated in good public schools and affordable colleges; police and fire protection; road maintenance; postal service; maybe an aging parent whose medical bills were paid by Medicare; and a working, prosperous, tax-paying community which funded those benefits and funded those government subsidies and loans. Now if Obama and the Dems would take up that banner and run with it…… well, wouldn’t that be something? Or, probably more correctly and sadly, wouldn’t that have been something?
“Is everyone posting on FDL these days being paid by Barry O’s reelection team?”
Guess you have not read enough comments or posts here.
Open mouth, then insert foot?
Of course, Barry is right. On the other hand, it’s breathtaking that he would adopt such a progressive narrative while using metaphors noting cut-backs, belt tightening, etc., undermining the very mechanism providing the institutional help to which he alludes.
I’d kind of like to see him make up his mind. If you are going to talk about the good government does (as he did in this speech), then adequately fund it and use it in a manner that does the most good, rather than cutting back services and budgets (or at least STOP agreeing with the wing-nuts proposing the cut-backs). Hey Barry, your federal hiring and pay freezes helped to exacerbate the poor economy (and I know YOU know that), so why the progressive talk now?????
Oh yeah, right. This helps YOU get elected; I get it.
BRAVO! I’m with you. I will NOT vote for 0bama again.
Well stated, thx.
Here is that missing context:
But you know what, I’m not going to see us gut the investments that grow our economy to give tax breaks to me or Mr. Romney or folks who don’t need them. So I’m going to reduce the deficit in a balanced way. We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more. (Applause.) And, by the way, we’ve tried that before — a guy named Bill Clinton did it. We created 23 million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus, and rich people did just fine. We created a lot of millionaires.
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, 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. (Applause.)
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.
407 likes 1276 dislikes
Am I the only one having flashbacks to Joe the Plumber?
I watched that ad and didn’t realize its the “Gilchrist Metal” here at the end of my street here in Hudson, NH. Last time I noticed Gilchrist is on a town road that is owned and maintained by the town and serviced by town water and sewer.