Tuesday, February 19, 2008
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The Importance of Pseudo-Plagiarism
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
12:25 PM
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It's not so much that Obama actually plagiarized. It seems Deval Patrick and the advisers he shares with Obama sanctioned the use of similar language in the two candidates' "just words" speeches. So, Barack was, at worst, sloppy about borrowing the phrases without attribution or some sort of polite nod to his friend.
But what the story takes a whack at, effectively, is Obama's authenticity, which is his No. 1 selling point. Hillary's camp is smart to play up the fact that the supreme orator, the Messiah of American politics, the man of change above all else, could really just be another politician with a flair for speechifying, a calculating player with no compunction about inspiring with rehashed copy if it suits his purposes.
This incident will prompt much closer looks at Obama's words from here on out, which will naturally be rougher than the positively orgasmic reviews he's been getting up until now. This is good for Hillary and good for the GOP in the general if he ends up being the nominee.
Not only does the Messiah's bubble of political uplift get popped, sending him tumbling just a bit closer to the mere mortals he's campaigning against, but no one in the GOP has to be the bad guy who did it. The bottom line is, if you're selling inspiration, you better truly be inspired, Barack.
And here are the fruits of the closer look at Obama, already growing:
“In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Patrick said that he and Mr. Obama first talked about the attacks from their respective rivals last summer, when Mrs. Clinton was raising questions about Mr. Obama’s experience, and that they discussed them again last week," the Times' Jeff Zeleny wrote. "Patrick said he told Mr. Obama that he should respond to the criticism, and he shared language from his campaign with Mr. Obama's speechwriters.” But Obama was quoted using Patrick's language before the Summer of 2007. "'We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ Those are just words," Obama was quoted as saying in a March 19, 2007 New Republic story. " ‘I have a dream.’ Just words.” So....the claim that Patrick an Obama "first" discussed this last Summer does not make sense. And this:
Patrick in June 2006, at the Massachusetts Democratic party convention: "I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations." Obama one year later, as quoted in USA Today: "I am not asking anyone to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."
Anyone notice that the "just words" speech was actually better delivered by Patrick? Could it be that Deval 2.0 isn't really an upgrade?
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You overestimate this.
Frankly, the average voter is less likely to care about borrowed language when he/she casts their vote than about who looks and sounds more presidential and is willing to make crazy promises to give them tons of money and a pony.
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Considering how very little this matters, I'm not surprised to see the GOPers circling the drain with the plagiarism non-story. Heck, even Coulter must have a thing or two to say on that score, given she has written whole chapters ripped from another's mouth and made them her own by changing a word here and there. |
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Is that Sen McCain will have little to no chance of outshining Obama in November.
Republicans, radio show conservatives and bloggers should be campaigning ALL OUT for Huckabee to get enough delegates to force a brokered convention. It's our only hope.
Duval is not running ~ Gov Huckabee is. Why not blog a comparision of some of these quotes with Obama's?
http://www.huckisms.com
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Gotta' love it! Remember ol' Biden had to bow put quoting from another failed socialist sans attribution. |
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Most people aren't going to care about this. I think McCain should take a page from this book. He needs to find a Republican who actually likes his own party and steal every bit he can...I'm seeing too many old hand GOP bulls like Phil Gramm and Jack Kemp running around playing mutt and jeff with talk radio. All that says to conservatives is McCain has the clout to send these oldsters out to do what he doesn't want to do: butter up the conservatives. I can almost see the barf bag he must have had hidden behind the podium at cpac. McCain isn't fooling anyone; sending out party hacks makes him look even more distant..he needs to rip off Reagan; get out and talk to people...touch them (shake hands, not kick them in the groin and spit on them as they lay on the ground.) If Obama can do this to Hillary (who is loved by many in her party and the media) think of what he's going to do to McCain (who isn't..at all.) I hope he isn't caught flat footed when the media turns on him. |
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Politicians are all guilty of this from time to time. Patrick was also quoting but added "just words" so what's the big deal.
I like McCain the maverick so I hope he doesn't change & hope that he would pick Gov Crist from Florida for his vice president. I would love this ticket. |
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