Begrudge

By Creature

A gaffe:

"I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen," Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system."

Obama's centrism makes him tone deaf. I get that he's speaking to Business Week, but to not acknowledge that the only reason a "free-market system" exists for those "savvy businessmen" is that the taxpayer made it possible is seriously bone-headed.

This will have repercussions.

Update: The full quote is here, and it's more nuanced than the screaming headlines imply. Nuance, however, doesn't drive the media. Hence, gaffe.

Update II: The White House argues "nuance" in response. They are not wrong, but when your argument is nuance, it is a losing one.