Remember When Hillary Accused Obama of Plagiarism?
“Change you can Xerox.”
The media has decided that the alleged Melania Trump plagiarism story is the greatest thing that’s ever happened in American politics.
So as long as we’re on the subject, let’s look back at the last time plagiarism was alleged in a presidential election. It was 2008, and a young Senator from Illinois was fighting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination.
Obama had been caught lifting lines from his ideological twin, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Clinton called him out for it during a debate.
The New York Times reported:
Debate Takes On Contentious Air
Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama veered from collegial to clenched and combative in a debate on Thursday, with Mrs. Clinton turning especially aggressive as she all but accused Mr. Obama of plagiarism and derided his political message as “change you can Xerox.”
Mr. Obama, buoyed by 11 straight victories in the most recent nominating contests, sought to maintain a positive tone throughout, though at one point he accused Mrs. Clinton of suggesting that his supporters were “delusional” or “being duped” by his themes of hope and unity…
In her sharpest attack to date on the originality of his oratory and ideas, Mrs. Clinton cited news reports about Mr. Obama’s nearly verbatim use of remarks first delivered by a close ally, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. She argued that Mr. Obama had drawn great praise for his speeches, and then questioned whether they had been plagiarized.
Playing off a trademark line of Mr. Obama’s, she said: “Lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in. It’s change you can Xerox.”
The comment elicited loud groans and some applause from the audience at the University of Texas at Austin.
Here’s the video which captured the moment:
This is the plagiarism Hillary was referring to:
Of course, none of this matters. Not only because it was eight years ago but because as we all know, if it was discovered tomorrow that Obama had plagiarized every speech he’s ever given, Democrats and the media would shrug.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
The ridiculous allegations against Mrs. Trump of plagiarism from a speech Mrs. Obama did not write have already been debunked at:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/if-melania-trump-plagiarized-michelle-obama-2008-speech-then-michelle-obama-plagiarized-hers ; http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-19/did-michelle-obama-also-borrow-her-2008-speech
Nevertheless, even I would have been suspicious if Mrs. Trump had said in her speech: “”Before I met Donald, he was a shiftless Chicago bathhouse hustler with a very suspicious and incomplete resume.” Now that would have been open-and-shut plagiarism of the thoughts of Mrs. Obama
Would give you 1000 thumbs “up” if possible.
“The ridiculous allegations against Mrs. Trump of plagiarism from a speech Mrs. Obama did not write have already been debunked…”
No, they certainly have not.
Both the links you provide (the first is broken, btw) are simply examples of the fallacy of ad hominem tu quoque, which does not address the wrong done, but takes the form of “Oh, yeah? Wul your guy (gal) did it, too!”
That “debunks” nothing, nor in this case can the allegations be “debunked”, as they are facially accurate.
It’s interesting to watch people twist themselves into dishonest knots trying to excuse an obvious…though pretty harmless…act of plagiarism.
The speech bears too much resemblance to MO’s to be dismissed as “debunked”; indeed, the speech writer who included lines from MO’s speech has said she did so because Melania had told her that one of the people she most admires is Michelle Obama.
The speechwriter has taken responsibility (correctly so, it is her job to write original speeches, not lift lines from someone else’s speeches). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36850215
If this is all the MSM has on Trump, they have nothing. I suggest we cease covering this however well intentioned as it keeps the Democrat narrative alive. The low information voter only reads the bumper sticker and the others already know it is a non-issue and the Democrats lie and do everything they accuse Republicans of doing but by a factor of 10.
I disagree. let them keep talking about it for as long as they want.
The longer the narrative is kept alive the dumber the Democrats/NeverTrumpers look.
As a Tweet (not from Pence) says:
Mike Pence
@MikePenceVP
With all the media attention, you’d think Melania violated national security, had a federal probe and was criticized by the head of the FBI.
“The longer the narrative is kept alive the dumber the Democrats/NeverTrumpers look.”
Really? My impression was that the longer the T-rump cultists and paid liars like Monofact keep denying the obvious or crafting broke-dick excuses, the more they showed who they are.
You do realize you’ve just proven his point
You DO realize you just proved mine…???
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen…
Even with the generic lines, there was minimal overlap. Still, people may want to think at least twice before voting for Melania Trump.
And now back to our regularly scheduled program of progressive wars, opportunistic regimes changes, refugee crises, progressive debt, class diversity, selective exclusion, anti-native policies, female chauvinism, “final solution”, channeling Mengele, and other things from the Pro-Choice Church.
nn & TX, you both have stupendous comments!! Just wish more people thought like you folks. I’d just like to add that there is NO comparison between Melania and Michelle Obama. Poor Michelle…it’ll be so good to see her retreat into oblivion.
If, as any sane person would do, you look at the entirety of her speech, it has zero in common with Michele’s speech except that one small bit which every parent has said almost verbatim to their children. Melania said that this was the greatest country in the world and in history. Michele said the exact opposite, that she was finally proud of her country for nominating her sorry husband. Can there be two women more different than these two? I don’t think so. One is happy to be an American citizen and the other loathes this country and all it stands for.
When the controversy over Barack’s use of Deval Patrick’s lines came out (and yes, the media made a big deal about it), Deval came out and said he had encouraged Barack to use it. His use was more like Trump Jr.s use of lines his staff writer had used in a different publication. Despite having the orginial creator’s support and approval, Barack still admitted publicly that it was wrong to use the lines without crediting Deval. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign continues to claim there was no plagiarism. This despite the similarity of far more lines than were involved in the Barack/Deval controversy, and despite the fact that Melania’s speechwriter has now admitted the lines came from Michelle’s speech. It’s utterly indefensible, and it’s the only reason this controversy survived past lunch on Tuesday.
A number of people have suggested the speechwriter is a progressive mole.
Tweet from Melania
MELANIA TRUMP @MELANIATRUMP 2h2 hours ago
Statement on Melania Trump speech
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cn0tfZKWcAAsaPn.jpg:large
In breaking news:
RATs&Democrats accuse Trump Jr. from plagiarizing a part of his speech from … his speech writer.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/07/egg-meet-face-liberal-media-nevertrump-accuse-donald-trump-jr-plagiarism-charge-refuted-speech-author/
You just cannot make this up. Which effort is more pathetic, Team Mosbey or they fools?
“breaking news…”?
Published last night? I read this very early this morning on Dim Jim Hoft’s cartoon blog.
Then Rush dealt with it at length today.
And how does this relate in any way to Baltimore and Mosby, except in an effort to smear by association?
What the boobs did was bad enough. What you did here is at least as bad.
Much a nothing about a do.
Does anyone really believe any politician or his wife ever had an original thought,?
That’s just a deflection. You might also ask, “Does anyone expect anyone in public life to be honest?”.
The answer, for me at least, is “YES!”.