Romney Dog Whistle: Obama’s Philosophy Is ‘Foreign To The American Experience’

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Mitt Romney doubled down on his characterization of President Obama as a “foreigner” during an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow Monday afternoon, insisting that the president believes that the government is responsible for the success of entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Romney’s comments continue tomisrepresent Obama’s remarks at a July 17th event, during which Obama suggested that society as a whole contributes to the economic accomplishments of the individual. Republicans have seized on the remarks to advance the myth that the president espouses an “un American” governing philosophy:

KUDLOW: Why do you think President Obama, what did he mean, if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build it, someone else made that happen? He claims it’s being taken out of context. What do you think it means? Do you think this is Obama anti-business, anti-entrepreneur? Or do you think maybe he has been treated unfairly? [...]

ROMNEY: 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. It’s a very strange and in some respects foreign to the American experience type of philosophy. We have always been a nation that has celebrated success of various kinds. The kid that gets the honor roll, the individual worker that gets a promotion, the person that gets a better job. And in fact, the person that builds a business. And by the way, if you have a business and you started it, you did build it. And you deserve credit for that. It was not built for you by government…. So his whole philosophy is an upside-down philosophy that does not comport with the American experience.

In reality, Obama’s contention that — “when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together” — is something Romney himself has agreed with. For instance, during his speech at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics, Romney said, “You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions.”

He echoed the same sentiment last week, saying, “I know that you recognize a lot of people help you in a business. Perhaps the bank, the investors. There is no question your mom and dad, your school teachers. The people who provide roads, the fire, the police. A lot of people help.”

Bachmann says Obama ‘waving a tar baby’ with oil policy

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is accusing the nation’s first black president of “waving a tar baby in the air” over his proposed crackdown on oil speculators.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama proposed measures that would give regulators more power to limit manipulation of the oil markets.

“We can’t afford a situation where some speculators can reap millions while millions of American families get the short end of the stick,” he told reporters.

During a recent interview with the blog Shark Tank, Bachmann insisted that new legislation wasn’t necessary because Obama “already has the tools and he knows it.”

“So, if there is a problem then president Obama is the problem for failing to utilize these tools that he has,” she continued.

“This is just about waving a tar baby in the air and saying that something else is the problem. I have never seen a more irresponsible president who is infantile in the way that he continually blames everybody else for his failure to, first, diagnose the problem and, second, to address the problem. It’s always everyone else’s fault.”

Bachmann concluded: “The president is a complete and utter fraud and a hypocrite on this issue, with all due respect to the president.”

As The Hill noted, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) apologized last year after he said that dealing with the president was “like touching a tar baby.”

The concept of a “tar baby” originated in African folklore and was popularized by one of Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories published in 1881. In its original context, the term means “something used to entrap a person” but has also been used as a derogatory term for black people.

Watch this video from Shark Tank, uploaded April 19, 2012.

Gingrich: Children of poor families are lazy, should be put to work

By Stephen C. Webster

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), now seemingly the Republican party’s new frontrunner for their presidential nomination, took rhetorical aim on Thursday at an all new threat to America’s economy, one that’s been with us all along: lazy children of poor families.

Speaking to a crowd in Iowa yesterday, Gingrich for the second time in recent weeks called for child labor laws to be repealed.

“Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday,” he insisted. “They have no habit of staying all day, they have no habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless it is illegal.”

Speaking at Harvard University’s Kennedy School last month, Gingrich made a similar statement, telling an audience that putting children to work at low wage jobs “is something that no liberal wants to deal with.”

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid,” he went on to say.

“Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school,” Gingrich ultimately suggested. “The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”

He also recently suggested that protesters who are occupying their various cities should “go get a job right after you take a bath.”

Unemployment figures published Friday by the Labor Department showed that while the jobless rate is improving, down to 8.6 percent, hourly wages are also declining, while the number of temporary jobs has increased. While the declining unemployment rate is at its lowest figure in nearly two years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that just 120,000 new jobs were created in November. Meanwhile, over 13.3 million Americans are still unemployed.

Other data showed that for people who are out of work, it is much harder to get a new jobthan it is for the currently employed.

The video below is from FoxNews.com, broadcast Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011.