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Monday, February 18, 2008

Obama: What’s A Little Plagiarism Between Friends?

Barack is shrugging off the (rather credible and pertinent, in my opinion) charges of plagiarism being leveled at him.

NILES, Ohio - Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that he doesn’t think it’s a big deal that he borrowed lines from his friend Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, although he probably should have given him credit. . . .

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson accused Obama of plagiarizing Patrick, and that’s particularly troubling since Obama’s appeal is based in large part on his rhetorical skills.

“It raises questions about the premise of his candidacy,” Wolfson told reporters in a conference call.

Obama, D-Ill., says that’s going too far.

“Now hold on a second. Let’s see — I’ve written two books, wrote most of my speeches,” Obama told reporters at a news conference after touring a titanium plant.

“I’m happy to give Deval credit, as I give credit to a lot people for spurring all kinds of ideas,” he said. “But I think that it is fair to say that everything that we’ve been doing in generating excitement and the interest that people have in the election is based on the core belief in me that we need change in America.”

The problem is that other authors/speakers who do this sort of thing usually get fired.  Or sued.  Or, at the very least, criticized roundly by their peers.

Yes, Obama should have given Patrick credit for his words and trying to shrug that lack of credit off as nothing when you get caught after the fact just isn’t enough.

Comments

Minorities are incapable of plagiarism and racism, doncha know?

Kevin on February 18, 2008 at 04:27 pm
Avatar for Todd

Minorities are incapable of plagiarism and racism, doncha know?

Wha...? A conservative highlighting Obama’s race? Why, that’s the first time I’ve seen that on this blog! (Not counting every other reference to him in this past year and a half.) Rob’s MLK quotation was too much though; I mean, at a certain point you just drift into satire.
Todd on February 18, 2008 at 09:17 pm
Avatar for sean

As much as these folks talk, this does not surprise or concern me much. I suspect it will not be long before we get a list of lines Senator Clinton has borrowed as well. That won’t concern me either. However having her surrogates go after Obama with this lame charge does concern me.

sean on February 18, 2008 at 09:18 pm

They both plagiarize Karl Marx.

Kevin on February 18, 2008 at 09:21 pm

Once again, it’s a credibility issue.  How much should we trust a plagiarist?


Save America; boycott the MSM.

robert108 on February 18, 2008 at 09:25 pm

Shysters believe in “sharing” which explains their reliance on “precedence.”

Kevin on February 18, 2008 at 09:30 pm
Avatar for JohnL

Well, Deval Patrick *suggested* he use that line - which probably goes a long way in explaining why there is no suit against Obama.

JohnL on February 18, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Avatar for Jay

Not. News. 

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.

Both men had anticipated that Mr. Obama’s rhetorical strength would provide a point of criticism. Mr. 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.

Mr. Patrick said he did not believe Mr. Obama should give him credit.

“Who knows who I am? The point is more important than whose argument it is,” said Mr. Patrick, who telephoned The New York Times at the request of the Obama campaign. “It’s a transcendent argument.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/us/politics/18video.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&loc=interstitialskip&ref=politics&adxnnlx=1203357935-Z0TqSaRg+yvbRzSej7CBKQ

Jay on February 19, 2008 at 09:41 am
Avatar for Tom Johnson

What’s wrong with the media these days, people ask.

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with the media:  it’s an echo chamber.  No one does any real fact-checking, they just run around parroting each other with all speed.

Do people in the media even bother to look at a dictionary to find out what plagiarism means?  Plagiarism is the unauthorized use of someone else’s words.  In this case, plagiarism did not occur at all for Mr. Obama.  Mr. Deval Patrick gave him a suggestion and he took it.

Barack Obama and Deval Patrick HAVE THE SAME CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR GOODNESS SAKES!

If anyone in this campaign is a plagiarist, IT’S HILLARY CLINTON!  She has frequently borrowed lines from Barack Obama, without giving any credit and without having permission.  I hope her ship sinks quickly - she has NO integrity!

Tom Johnson on February 19, 2008 at 01:52 pm
Avatar for Ann 1

Obviously Deval Patrick is covering for Obama.  Obama in his initial comments claimed to have used the lines off text.  If it was truly an off the cuff line of attack then he could not have discussed this
with Deval before.  He got caught cheating he should admit it was a mistake and move on.  Unfortuanely, this is not the first time.  His speeches are 90% filled with other peoples words.  Where lese can he get the inspirtaion to give so many Hungry Americans HOPE and CHANGE.  The doesn’t have it himself.

Ann 1 on February 19, 2008 at 02:53 pm
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