The Obama campaign suggested last week that Mitt Romney may have committed a felony by listing himself as Bain’s CEO in SEC filings after he left the firm in 1999 to run the Olympics. As outrageous and inappropriate the claim, President Obama has no intention of apologizing to Governor Romney.
It’s not as though Obama doesn’t like to apologize. However, he apologizes for Americans, not to Americans. In fact, the President makes a habit of apologizing - on behalf of all Americans - to despots, thugs, and countries that hate us, whether or not we have anything to apologize for. But when a member of his own senior staff makes a truly despicable and inappropriate remark, Obama will not apologize.
Mr. President, I don't apologize, either. I wholeheartedly and unabashedly believe in America and The American Way. And you have shown that you don't understand either. Obama has proven time and again that he rejects the fundamental American ideals of individualism, self-reliance, merit, and competition. In a stunning display of the disdain for success and successful people that has been emblematic of his presidency, Obama told a crowd in Roanoke, VA (full transcript here.)
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’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…
Don’t think for a minute that Obama is daft. He is not. He simply doesn’t believe in competition or, more specifically, the concept of winners and losers. He doesn't recognize the education necessitated by failure. In Toto, he doesn't understand how Americans think, and what they value.
America believes in the American Dream, and not just the idea of home ownership, white picket fences and a chicken in every pot. The American Dream is that if you work hard, you can achieve. That if you fail, you can – and should - try again. That nothing is guaranteed - not your success, not your happiness, not the quality of your life or the length of it - except what We the People enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution (specifically, "to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.")
America doesn't guarantee equal success to people who work equally hard. Yes, success in life (most times) requires hard work, but hard work alone isn’t enough. There has to be value in what you’re working on. A salesman working diligently to sell avocado green appliances in all likelihood isn’t going to be successful (unless he’s providing sets for movies set in 1970s suburbia).
Nor does America guarantee success to every smart person. The president pontificates on the unfairness of it all. “There are a lot of smart people out there," It's true. There are smart people out there. But only one created Microsoft. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak saw the personal computer in every home.
The American Way. Hard work. Smart people. Great ideas for products that people want. Success.
What the President is calling for is an equality of outcome. Obama favors an America that isn't America. It's France.
If outcomes are equal, what’s the incentive for someone to innovate? As Ayn Rand so poignantly showed in Atlas Shrugged, James Taggart (brother of our heroine, Dagny Taggart) wanted to run the family railroad. Could he? No. Was he capable of handling the stress? No. Could he deal with the employees, the changing political landscape, the vision to create a future for the railroad? No. But, he wanted to!…wasn't that enough? According to Obama, yes! But for Americans, who want the trains to run on time, no.
(To give a more modern example, do sports fans in Los Angeles want the 5' 10", 245lb, 55 year old man who tried hardest to be the shooting guard for the Lakers, or do they want the best player to be that shooting guard? The Answer: Kobe.)
Obama reminds us that the Internet and the roads were created by the all-powerful Government. Has anyone asked the President what would have happened if the private sector had more of a hand in its creation? Is it possible that the Internet would be better, faster, more accessible, and more affordable, just like everything else in the history of creation that has come from the private sector as opposed to the government? If the Internet had been left in the hands of government alone, we'd all be beneficiaries of a great email service, with a choice of fonts and super-fast 9600-baud connection speeds!
Incredibly, Obama credits the government for "enabling" the entrepreneur. Government can’t produce opportunity; it can only choose to get in the way, or get out of the way.
Obama views Capitalism and competition as unfair. America views them as the opportunity for a better life. Obama doesn't understand America, or The American Way.
The Election is 112 days away.