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Monday, February 18, 2008

The Obama 'plagiarism' kerfuffle

If you haven't caught up with the Clinton charge yet, below is the video where they compare a certain line of rhetoric used by Deval Patrick in his race for governor of Massachusetts with a passage in a recent Obama speech. Obama says he and Patrick -- a good friend -- share ideas all the time. Patrick says he is not upset at all, and the Obama team point to Hillary and McCain both using his "fired up and ready to go" line recently. Pressed on the matter, Obama said that Patrick "suggested that we use these lines…I thought they were good lines. I’m sure I should have [given him credit], I didn’t this time.” Here's the video:

8 comments:

David said...

This is news?

andy said...

Another word for it is "cheating". That's what I remember I was doing my paper for MBA class.

andy said...

Another word for it is "cheating". That's what I remember when I was doing class paper for my MBA course. Be a man, admit it!

David said...

It's a waste of journalistic resources.

This isn't news.

Unknown said...

Who cares if he lifted some lines from a friend’s speech? His friend obviously didn't mind. Also, Obama was answering the exact same charge that Mr. Patrick was addressing, that is, that his speeches were "just words." So naturally to answer the charge, he would use the same language that was used when the charge was levied.

This is a story about nothing which was injected into the 24 hour news cycle just before an election. It is a republican style dirty trick. Mrs. Clinton should be ashamed of herself, acting like a republican.

Anonymous said...

The Boston Globe ran an article about the similarities in their rhetoric between Mr.Obama and Mr. Patrick a while back. I do not understand all of this media hype, it seems though that Hillary is using weak attacks, is that all she can find?? I had a lot of respect for her, but in recent weeks she and Bill Clinton are showing their true character.... questionable to say the least. If she is such a fighter and had to fight all of these 34 years, shouldn't she be tired and just say I give up? No, too much money in power!!!

David said...

This isn't a Republican or Democratic tactic, or a Clintonian or Obmamian tactic...

This is politics as usual. Does labeling negative behaivor as characteristic of another party really reveal anything about what the candidates have to offer in terms of solutions? Why does this even get play in the news cycle. Again, it's not news. Activity affecting legislation that's news. Election results thats news. Strong telling undeniable economic trends news again. Obama borrowing some words from a friend's speech doesn't address social ills. Boring story and a waste of time. Shame on the news media.

Anonymous said...

if all they can find is Plagiarism ...then whoopity doo!