President Barack Obama cruised into Seattle Thursday as part of his 2012 campaign, touting everything from jobs to foreign policy to immigration reform to his stance on gay marriage.
Obama presented himself as a unifier at a time that the country is deeply divided.
To make his point, the president turned to the innovation economy, noting that Americans invested in the Internet.
We built this country together. We built railroads and highways, we built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge — we built those things together. We sent my grandfather’s generation to college on the GI Bill -– together. We did these things not because they benefited any particular individual, any particular group; we did these things because we were building a platform for everybody to be able to succeed. We were creating the conditions for everybody to be able to succeed. These things made us all richer. They gave us all opportunity. (Applause.) They moved us all together, all forward, as one nation, and as one people.
And that’s the true lesson of our past. We love the free market. We believe in rewarding entrepreneurship and risk. But when I hear my opponent and some of these folks talk as if somehow nobody had anything to do with the success of these businesses and our entrepreneurs, I have to remind them that we — we the people — invested in creating the Internet that allowed Microsoft and Google and Facebook to thrive. There’s not a business in this country that’s not benefiting from roads and bridges and airports — the investments we make together. Every time we’ve got a kid who’s getting a great education in a public school and able to go to get an outstanding education at a public university, we’re contributing to the possibilities of the free market succeeding. And that’s the right vision for our future. That’s the reason I’m running for President, because I believe in that vision. I believe in that vision.”
What struck me about the remarks is that Obama was just a few blocks from Amazon.com’s headquarters and yet he failed to mention the online retailer. Hasn’t Amazon benefitted from the rise of Internet more than most companies?
Our media partner, King 5 has a full transcript of Obama’s speech.
