As President Barack Obama headed for campaign stops in Central Florida on Thursday, more than a dozen billboards heralded his arrival – but their message wasn’t exactly welcoming.
Rival Mitt Romney’s campaign paid for 13 billboards splashed across the Orlando area displaying the message, “I built my business,” according to WOFL-TV, the
Fox affiliate in Orlando.
The slogan alludes to Obama’s comments in Virginia last month that small business owners owe their success to government infrastructure and other programs.
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help . . . Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges," Obama said at the time. "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
Obama has said his comments have been taken out of context, but they didn’t sit well with a lot of small business owners who say they owe their success to hard work, not the government.
“We did build our own business," business owner Tonya Burns, who is featured in one of the billboards, told MyFoxOrlando.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.