In response to President Obama’s recent, harsh claims that business owners didn’t build their own businesses, the Romney campaign has released a “Built It” t-shirt and a video, “These Hands,” demonstrating Romney’s allegiance to business owners.
The red, white, and blue Romney “Built It” shirt features the words “I built my business, Mr. President” on the front. On the back is a quote from Romney’s public response to Obama’s comments that is also featured in the video: “The idea to say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, that Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motor… is not just foolishness, it’s insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America, and it’s wrong.”
The “Built It” t-shirt and “These Hands” video represent the Romney campaign’s effort to embrace and support business owners after President Obama has publicly demeaned them.
The video begins with scenes from Gilchrist Metal Fabricating Company in Hudson, New Hampshire, which is run by Jack Gilchrist and his family. A recording of Obama from Friday night’s campaign rally in Virginia plays in the background: “Hey, 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 cause I was just so smart.’ There are a lot of smart people out there.”
The recording continues, “Let me tell you something: if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Then, the video cuts to a clip of business owner Gilchrist expressing his exasperation with Obama’s comments: “President Obama, you’re killing us out here. Through hard work and a little bit of luck we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it? We are the solution, not the problem.”
He continues, “It’s time we had somebody who believes in us, someone who believes that achievement should be rewarded, not punished. We need somebody who believes in America.”
The video closes with a clip of Mitt Romney who declares, “President Obama attacks success and therefore under President Obama we have less success, and I will change that.” Then, final frame flashes the words, “After four years of being torn down, it’s time to rebuild.”
Obama’s insistence that the wealthy are not responsible for their own success strongly resembles the beliefs of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren, who once said, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.”
The “Built It” shirt can be purchased for $20, and the money goes to Romney’s presidential campaign.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNHeTwoy5vI]
