Originally Posted by kane

I understand what Obama is saying and in many ways he is correct, he just said it in a strange way and should punch whoever wrote the speech in the face.

He is simply saying that if you are successful there were other people and outside influences that helped you get there whether you realize it or not. If you are a successful webmaster you took the initiative and had the drive to put in the hard work to get that success, but you sure as hell didn't invent the internet. You didn't create Google or Yahoo, or the other places that you are likely getting your traffic from. You didn't invent the computer and then figure out ways to improve it and mass produce it so that it could be affordable to the millions who now have them and use them to access your business. You didn't create HTML code or the software you use to build your site. Hell, you might not have even shot the content that is on your sites and I'm pretty confident you don't supply the millions with their ISP connections. These are all things you had nothing to do with, but they directly affect and influence your success and without them you have no business.

You are the motor that powers the car of your success, but without tires, a steering wheel, a transmission and other parts you aren't going to be getting very far.

Where his speech goes off the rails in not where he points out that a person's success was influenced by others, but where he suggests that the government can help average middle class people to gain that level of success and that somehow his administration is either going help them achieve that without them having to do much themselves.