TAMPA, Fla.

“We did build that,” has already been established as one of the more dishonest political memes in a campaign season undisturbed by shame. The Republicans took a clumsy phrase from an Obama speech in July, in which the president pointed out that most American business successes have been assisted by infrastructure, education or incentives underwritten by the government. The Republican spin-masters whipped this into a preposterous claim that Obama denied American entrepreneurs any credit for their creations. The fact that this slogan has been thoroughly debunked has not kept it from being the defining theme in Tampa.

Until Tuesday’s opening festivities you could call this a particularly egregious example of the familiar political game of ripping things out of context. (As in, “I like to fire people.”) A little distortion. A bit of oppo jiu-jitsu.

But why stop there? Why not go whole hog and just make stuff up?

“Today,” the GOP proudly announced in a press release, “the Republican National Convention unveiled three ‘These Hands’ videos profiling small business owners in Colorado, Nevada and Ohio who built their business themselves, a clear contrast to President Obama’s claim that small business owners didn’t build their businesses.”

Each of these little propaganda gems begins with the following audio of President Obama’s voice:

“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You, you didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think: ‘Wow, it must be because I was just so smart.’ There are a lot of smart people out there. ‘It must be because I worked harder than everyone else. ‘Let me tell you something, if you’ve got a business, that … you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Well, that’s pretty clear. It’s also not what Obama said. Here’s the full, pre-doctored transcript:

Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

In another campaign season, the fact that the opposition edited the president’s voice to say something he didn’t say would be regarded as audacious. This year it’s almost unremarkable.

Each of the videos, by the way, continues with the lament of a hard-working businessman – a Colorado farmer, the owner of a Nevada candy company, and the president of an Ohio electric company – each profoundly insulted by what Obama … um, never actually said. Or maybe the Republicans found the only three businessmen in America who have never made use of the interstate highway system or the Internet, never benefited from farm price supports or a government-backed student loan, never enjoyed a business-related tax break.