Why Obama's "silver spoon" comment wasn't a dig at Romney

President Obama.

This post originally appeared on Slate.

Yesterday President Obama said he "wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth." This line was widely interpreted as a not-so-subtle dig at Mitt Romney, the wealthy son of a wealthy father. At first glance, that seemed plausible, though perhaps too subtle. The president's campaign would like you to think Romney was born with silver tea, soup, demitasse, grapefruit, and runcible spoons--not to mention that funny silver ladle we use just on Thanksgiving--in his mouth. But upon second look, the president wasn't talking about his Republican challenger. He was just talking. The "silver spoon" construction is a standard Obama cliche. He's used it here, here, here, here and here, long before Romney was the nominee. His wife has used it. (The press has even used the cliche when talking about the president.)

Check out John Dickerson's "Hotsheet Live" Reporters Roundtable with Real Clear Politics and CBS News' Scott Conroy, USA Today's Susan Page and the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny in the video to the left.

This was not a new chapter in the protracted battle over which candidate is out of touch. Instead, it is another frivolous but unimportant campaign moment as defined by our easy-sort campaign coverage system. Proof of this verdict is that Mitt Romney quickly took successful umbrage with Obama's comment when a helpful news personality placed the ball on the tee and handed him the bat. "I'm not going to apologize for my dad's success, but I know the president likes to attack fellow Americans. He's always looking for a scapegoat, particularly those that have been successful like my dad, and I'm not going to rise to that."

Perfect: media misinterpretation and umbrage, two of the key ingredients necessary for the political silly season. And it's only April.

More from Slate:

"A Polygamy Compound in Mexico"
Ross Douthat: 'Eat, Pray, Love' Is Bad Religion
Let's Ignore North Korea

[slatep]

And just who was it who said he wants to raise $1 BILLION FOR HIS 2012 CAMPAIGN.???

[TimeToEvolve]

The fact is that while American worker productivity has skyrocketed their wages have remained stagnant. Meanwhile the income and wealth of the worthless Top 1% has skyrocketed as well. And they were filthy rich before that. The Top 1% now owns something like 45% of the wealth.

[euge005]

It is good to have the President set the republicans straight. I have seen posts here trying to confuse the public and saying Obama was from wealth. And if he got a littole wealthy, he earned it with excellence. It is still chump change next to Roney and Obama has never sold out people's jobs to aution off the corporate corpse. Willard not only earned most of his 230 million that way but also the 100 million he laid on each of 5 sons.And someone wants a comparison? There is none. Much better to have an accomplished constitutional lawyer and scholar than a corporate vulture in your corner, unless you are another vulture.

[slatep]

What are you on.???

Nobody knows where Obama got his money anymore than they know where he was born, whose Social Security number he has, proof of his teaching as a law professor, his college transcripts and the number of the different passports he used to travel from country.!!!

Face it, Obama is a "plant" whose cohorts wrote his speeches and pulled his chain to get him to follow their instructions to help America become a Socialist/Marxist country with Obala (LOL) ruling the country.

I think GB2 was a plant, except he was put in office by Republicans.

If and when Obama goes; John Boehner, Eric Cantor and a man whose name I forget should go with him.

We need a person in the White House that doesn't belong to anybody but himself.

[wfw3536]

It is sad the president continues to put down folks in our country. Instead, why doesn't he talk about his failed record, or out of control agencies where they spend 800,000 dollars partying in Vegas or the out of control Secret Service. I thought the buck stops at the president desk, so when is going to stop his class warfar attacks and take on some responsibility.

[TimeToEvolve]

You forgot that when Obama took over from the Bush Crime Family that we were losing 750,000 jobs a MONTH and the DOW was at 7,500 (now it is at 13,000).

[savvyj2]

It seems Mr. Obama might not have been born with a silver spoon, but he soon acquired one. How is it that he attended so many expensive, private schools? The regular kid in America is not able to afford such high class, fancy, and expensive schools, so how did he? Oh, that's right, Pres. Obama refuses to release any information about his education and how he was able to get it. What is he hiding?

[TimeToEvolve]

This is a simple decision. If you want to further cut taxes on those that don't need it, vote Republicon. If you do not want to help the middle class and don't care that women, minorities and gays don't have equal pay and equal rights then vote Republicon.

[RCRawlings]

Only an envious dog eater would say he wasn't born with a spoon in his mouth. This moocher and freeloader wants to rip out the silver spoons out of everyone in America's mouths to pay for his failed social engineering programs.
Poor Barry, he wants some sympathy and more class war since he has nothing else to contribute as the president.
Go jump down a Port A Potty

[TimeToEvolve]

You must be very rich. You must have a silver spoon!

[savvyj2]

You don't need to be rich to be able to see the class envy and class warfare that is being perpetuated by the Democratic Party to their very gullible and "hand out" friendly voters.

[hypnotoad72]

Here's a real silver spoon article that's more worthy of "consumption":

http://now.msn.com/money/0419-money-and-happiness.aspx

Here's one of the comments the article garnered:

***
Geez - Who's propaganda is this? Happiness? Bliss? Bliss?!?!? Sounds like "someone's" attempts to keep us down. $25k suggestion - Really? There's no way for a family of four to survivie, save for their retirement/security of the future, have all the insurance coverage, etc etc



Treasuring and enjoying family and friends and considering them the most important elements of our lives, Sure! Comfort & happiness in religion, sure! Happy with that! Blissful with that! No matter the income.



But financially secure and happy is a whole other story. And this story is a farce. Get ready for a rude awakening when you approach the "Golden" years - they WON'T be so golden!!!

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

Is this what MITTY was telling Ann: He is making fun of me, tell OBAMA to stop picking on me.

Talk about a thin skin.

[purplestates]

Mitt Romney is out of touch with 99% of Americans and he reacted to something that the president has being used to describe his circumstance that sometimes, we need government help like student loan or Pell Grant in order to go to college.

By the way, Mitt went on Fox News complained that president Obama mock his father, that his father was poor, which is false. Mitt lied again. Is Mitt going to lie all the way to the White House?

[parrots7]

TaxJ, read the article above first - instead of spoiling for an argument. Maybe then, you'll understand what many of us already see about Romney's Lies - cuz am sure the POTUS did not mention or insinuate Romney the many times, through the years, that he had said the same thing. Dumb Dumb Repugs !!

[hypnotoad72]

And jobs that provide the money in return for college degrees.

The value of labor is a core fundamental for an economy.

We can have a bunch of poor, educated people, or prosperous ones.

Right now, throw the word "prosperity" out the window for such people, because plenty of factors have driven down wages... I'm not reposting the same list that I do 80% of the time... people will see it again in the future anyhow...