Will This Be The Defining Moment Of The Campaign?

President Obama's remarks in Roanoke, VA last week may be remembered as a pivotal moment in the 2012 campaign. It is this line that has touched a nerve: "If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

As this Christian Science Monitor article points out, taking the president's words in context as referring to public infrastructure still reveals a lack of understanding of how the economy works.

"It’s not the government’s money!" (Rep. Raul) Labrador said. "It was business people who gave the government money so we could have roads and buildings and infrastructure. That is what is fundamentally deficient in this administration.... He completely and fundamentally misunderstands what creates business, what creates a thriving economy."

Pat Sajak has a pithy commentary on this whole situation, concluding that

These defining moments take hold most devastatingly when they confirm what a large portion of the electorate already believes. Taken alone, it seems unfair that a single moment, an unguarded remark or a slip of the tongue can carry such weight. They're often dismissed as "gotcha" moments, but when voters are able to nod and say, "I knew it," these moments stick and do terrible damage. We have witnessed such a moment.

The statement has been the subject of numerous photo cartoons on Facebook this week, but this Romney ad seems to have really hit home.