By Abigail Parker

OBAMA:

Keyword and full quotation: “After my election I have more flexibility”.

Context: Obama said this quotation after a meeting about nuclear security with outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Unfortunately, his microphone was still on, leading audiences to question what aspect of nuclear security he can or will be more flexible on when he no longer has to worry about pleasing voters. Some comic relief to this troubling statement was provided when Medvedev responded with possibly the most stereotypically Russian statement ever:  “I understand you. I transmit this information to Vladimir” (Vladimir Putin is the current president of Russia).

Keyword: “The private sector is doing fine”

Full quotation: “The truth of the matter is, as I’ve said, we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800 thousand just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by governors or mayors that are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility as the federal gov’t in dealing with fewer revenues coming in, and so if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is how do we help state and local governments and how do we help the construction industry because the recipes that they’re promoting are basically the kinds of policies that would add weakness to the economy, would result in further layoffs, would not provide relief in the housing market, and would result, I think most economists estimate, in lower growth and fewer jobs, not more.”

Context: This sentence rapidly created much outrage; however, like so many things that politicians say, it was played out of the context of Obama’s full point when he said it. He was saying only that the private sector is doing fine in comparison with the economy at the level of state and local governments, which he wants to focus on improving. Later the same day, he clarified his position, saying, “It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine, that’s the reason I had the press conference, that’s the reason I spent yesterday, the day before yesterday, this past week, this past month, this past year talking about how we can make the economy stronger. The economy is not doing fine.”

Keyword: “You didn’t build that”

Full quotation: “If you have 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. 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 then all the companies could make money off the Internet.”

Context: The sentence “You didn’t build that” has been embraced by Obama’s opposition as proof that he does not believe in the ability of private businesses to contribute to the country. At the Republican National Convention, “We built it” became a catchphrase for those trying to contrast the capitalist values that they hold dear with the ideas of the president they hope to unseat. Calling Obama a “socialist” has been a go-to insult for his conservative opposition, who base their policies on the ability of private companies to regulate the economy themselves. When they gleefully quote Obama as degrading small business owners by saying “You didn’t build that,” what they do not realize is that the antecedent of Obama’s “that” is not those business owners’ companies but “roads and bridges.” Such public infrastructure is built by government investments, so Obama’s statement was simply a fact and not an opinion on the value of private business’s contribution to society. The question of how much Obama believes private companies can contribute toward improving the country is a valid one, but this quotation is not an example of Obama contrasting the relative contributions of government and industry. Rather, he is discussing how every enterprise in society is made possible by some help from outside sources.

ROMNEY:

Keyword: “Cadillacs” “NASCAR”

Full Quotation: “Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but I have some great friends that are Nascar team owners.”

“I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. And uh, I used to have a Dodge truck, so I used to have all 3 covered.”

Context: During the campaign, Romney has often been criticized for his inability to relate to average Americans. Romney is without question a very wealthy man, but when he says things like these quotations, he highlights how different his life is from most Americans. Anyone can say they aren’t a huge NASCAR fan, but most people aren’t friends with professional sports team owners. Driving a Mustang or a pickup truck seems normal, but having a wife who drives multiple Cadillacs? His is not the life that most people live. The economic background of a candidate determines absolutely nothing about what kind of president he would be, but the issue here is that when average citizens hear Romney make statements like these, they question whether someone who lives such a privileged life would be able to relate to the problems of their everyday lives and create policies that would help people struggling with economic issues that he has never had to face in his own life.

Keyword: “47%”

Full quotation: “There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean the president starts off with 48, 49, 40—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. 47% of Americans pay no income tax, so our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. So he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that’s what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending on in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not.”

Context: Romney said this quotation at a $50,000 a plate fundraising event in May. The video was later leaked. Romney’s statement that he will not worry about 47% of the U.S. population sent shockwaves across the country. Factually, within that 47% of people who do not pay income taxes, 60% do pay federal payroll taxes. A family of five within that group makes approximately $50,000 dollars a year, or the amount that it would cost to go to that event where Romney implied that he disagreed that they had the right to food, housing, and healthcare. The fact that this is what Romney has told his biggest donors made people across the country question whether they want a president who has stated that he will not worry about 47% of its population. Not only does this quotation state that Romney had no intention to concern himself with 47% of the electorate, it also characterizes those people as having no sense of personal responsibility. Calling nearly half of the people that you want to represent in government irresponsible is definitely not a good way to gain support. Like the last two quotations, this one alienates Romney from voters as he insults lower-income Americans.

Keyword: “Big Bird”

Full quotation: “I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird, I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.”

Context: During the first Obama-Romney debate, Romney gave a specific example of the government programs he would cut to PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer. He has long been advocating a smaller government, but this was one of the first specific programs that he named as one that would lose funding were he to be elected. He has been criticized for opposing funding for children’s educational television, especially by an international online audience. In fact, federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting totals $450 million, 8 million of which goes to Sesame Workshop. This is a very, very small amount of money in terms of the federal budget, but Romney’s move to point to it as an example of unnecessary spending perhaps capitalized on ignorance among the public, as a poll showed that 7% of Americans think that over half of the federal budget is spent on public broadcasting, in addition to 30% who thought it was between 5% and 30% of the budget. Obama mocked this comment, saying “Thank goodness someone is finally getting tough on Big Bird,” a comment which he followed up with an ad commenting “Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street.” This gaffe effectively aligned support of the beloved Sesame Street character with support of Obama, though the popular stereotype that public broadcasting has a liberal agenda (denied many times over by every institution involved in it) perhaps means that very few voters were really alienated from Romney by this comment.