Out of Touch

I saw this article on the Yahoo! scrolling news bar just a little while ago.  It details what President Obama encountered when he first stepped off Air Force One in Sioux City, Iowa today:

The article, written by Devin Dwyer of ABC News, then goes into the background of the whole "you didn't built that" meme: 

The message appeared to be a response President Obama's "you didn't build that" remark from a July campaign rally, when he was trying to explain that government - not businesses - constructed public infrastructure on which the economy relies. Republicans have used the four words to attack Obama as out of touch with the realities of owning and operating a small business.

Dwyer writes that the message "appeared to be a response" to Obama's now-infmaous comment about small business.  What is immediately obvious to anyone following current politics with the slightest degree of attentiveness takes some time for Dwyer to figure out (obviously trying to figure out the meaning of neanderthal-like symbols scrawled on a cave wall takes some time to decipher).  Dwyer breezily describes Obama's stance that "government -- not business -- constructed public infrastructure on which the economy relies."  While Government may be the origin of much of the funding for building roads and bridges and other critical infrastructure, where does that money come from? But that aside, Dwyer's description isn't an accurate representation of everything Obama said and implied.  Obama's words, in context, mean much more than that.

Here is the paragraph in full in which those famous remarks were said:

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.

Not only does government provide the necessary infrastructure, but it directly causes the success or failure of a business (notice the pronoun "that" refers to business, not roads and bridges).  But if government has the power to create a business, then they certainly have the power to close down a business.  This is what is plainly there and what so many were upset about, the media notwithstanding.  This teaching certainly seems to be "out of touch," to say the least.