Also read Brian Maffly’s article in the Salt Lake Tribune which mentions John Leavitt’s coverage of an epic legal battle in the Biotech/Pharma industries.
From the Salt Lake Tribune
The president’s whole context, as White House aides have repeatedly pointed out, is that other people — including, in some circumstances, government — have helped successful people succeed.
Romney, however, has seized on the condensed version of the comment as illustrating that Obama doesn’t understand small businesses and their challenges. It’s a strategy that seems to be galvanizing conservatives. Last week, Romney’s campaign held 18 “We did build this” events in a dozen states featuring small-business owners who say they made their companies what they are without the government’s help.
But critics note that while Romney likes to take credit for turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics, which had been savaged by an international bribery scandal, the federal government pumped more than $340 million into Utah, funding about 18 percent of the Games’ overall cost. If money for rebuilding Interstate 15 in Utah and adding light rail are included, the federal total rounds up to $1.3 billion.
“Not only has Mitt Romney blatantly taken the president’s words out of context, he has done so with brazen hypocrisy,” says Ty Matsdorf, a senior adviser with the pro-Obama American Bridge 21st Century super PAC. “Romney claims the Olympics as one of his successful turnarounds, but what he fails to mention is he was only able to do this with a billion-dollar check from taxpayers — a far cry from doing it on his own.”
