In researching the 2002 Winter Olympics , NBC News ' Domenico Montanaro posited that Romney had made a similar statement during his speech during those games ' opening ceremony , where he said : In '' The Huffington Post '' , Michael Smerconish wrote that the Romney campaign did take the words out of context , and that the message of the importance of social contracts was better worded by Warren . Nelson Davis , president of Nelson Davis Productions , rebuked the conservatives ' take on what Obama had said in Roanoke , saying that the reason why the United States has become great is due to business and government working together . Keeping with the " You did n't build that " meme , Alan Colmes wrote that Romney will not have sewed his suit , would not have built the stage used during the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay , Florida , and that his success at Bain Capital would not have been possible without government assistance . Anthony Gregory , of The Independent Institute , wrote that the implication of the speech was that the " state protects business interests so taxpayers have a partial claim on the wealth produced . " Michael Cohen writing for '' The Guardian '' stated that the Republicans ' usage of the phrase exemplifies that they " not only toil in their own narrowly and misleadingly constructed world , but really are just '' making stuff up . '' " In the '' New York Magazine '' , Jonathan Chait wrote that Romney 's use of the words from the Roanoke speech as a " plan of blatantly lying " about it , and the reason why it works is because of a " broader subtext " of the speech due to Obama not using his normal voice , but speaking with a " black dialect " . In '' Bloomberg Businessweek '' , Charles Kenny of the Center for Global Development also criticized the Romney campaign for taking the word out of context , and went on to state that American businesses benefit from infrastructure , and other elements of the " system " that Obama was speaking about in the speech . Media Matters made several posts targeting Fox News , and other news sources that Media Matters claimed were using Obama 's words out of context through " deceptive " editing . Ezra Klein , on '' The Rachel Maddow Show '' , said that the political statements made in the Roanoke speech were not particularly controversial , and that people rely on others and themselves
2012 Republican National Convention
2012 Republican National Convention
You didn't build that