Nothing either of them said is novel. It's the idea that no man is an island, and we all stand on the shoulders of others. That's what Romney was saying; that's what Obama was saying. This is how Albert Einstein put it: "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." If only Obama had been so eloquent.