Sarah Palin-Backed Congressional Candidate Accused Of Plagiarizing Obama's 2004 Convention Speech

Vaughn Ward, a GOP candidate for Idaho's First Congressional district, is facing charges that he swiped key passages from Barack Obama's iconic 2004 Democratic National Convention speech for his own campaign kickoff speech in January.

The specific passages in question have since been spliced together by a Tea Party activist who asks, "Who Is Vaughn Ward Really?"

Mike Tracy, a spokesman for Ward's campaign tried to downplay the video, telling Politico that the attack was a sign that "[f]olks are getting desperate -- they're saying anything to get Vaughn to go after him. If anyone thinks he's anything like Obama, they're dead wrong."

These allegations come after a series of missteps for the GOP candidate's campaign. Ward fired his campaign manager following an embarrassing discovery that he had borrowed heavily from the campaign language of various other GOP politicians. Ward later sought to rebound from that hiccup with a high-profile appearance with Sarah Palin, who endorsed him -- along with other military veterans -- back in March, but the event was slightly tarnished by multiple reports showing that Ward had referred to Puerto Rico as a "country" during a recent debate.

Republican voters in Idaho will go to the polls Tuesday to choose between Ward and his challenger, State Rep. Raul Labrador. Recent polling shows Ward leading Labrador 31 percent to 28 percent, with undecideds making up 37 percent. A similar poll from earlier in May had Ward leading 34 percent to 16 percent.

The following video is a mashup of Ward and Obama's remarks, created by Idaho blogger Lucas Baumbach, a tea party activist seeking a State Senate seat:

Comments

[Philclock]

01:35 PM on 05/30/2010

Huffposters' perpetual Sarah Palin snippyfest need some serious psychotherapy, and a cold glass of beer:

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/

[kimmicommonsense]

12:41 AM on 05/29/2010

They should kick him out of the race!!!

This isn't an accusation! This is a DOWNRIGHT FACT!!!

[kimmicommonsense]

12:39 AM on 05/29/2010

And is anyone shocked? Her books, her speeches, who she supports are all in loserville, and the gullibility of her "followers" is disheartening...especially when you know that they all have a right to vote...

[PardyOn]

12:06 AM on 05/28/2010

Stupid is as Stupid does....insert Palin and whatever candidate she's backing...

[George Global]

01:12 AM on 05/27/2010

A republican cheating???...copy that!

[joannenj]

11:49 PM on 05/26/2010

DNC to RNC: Please, please, please put up more candidates like Paul and Ward.

[Joan E. Dowlin]

11:14 PM on 05/26/2010

Ward needs to hire a new speech writer. Maybe he thought people would forget a speech made 6 years ago. Bad mistake in this age of YouTube. What it shows to me is that this guy is no Obama. His delivery needs a lot of work.

[George Global]

01:16 AM on 05/27/2010

Wait a minute...
I think I read this comment before.
How dare you!

[Chucktheman]

10:51 PM on 05/26/2010

If the right wing Christians want to get real they will realize "as believers" Jesus is a Liberal.
Jesus is also a socialist to some extent. Jesus has some conservative values too but does not fit that mold. So when they hide behind religion ask them what would Jesus do. They will give excuses or change the subject nine times out of ten. I ask them if you don't like social safety nets, who have you taught to fish today. If you don't want to feed them teach them survival skills before turning your back on society.

[42tom]

05:36 PM on 05/26/2010

LOL..Those who talk so much about being so Godly and others are not are always the worst set of people. The Republicans claim to be Christians and they are all th1eves and liars.

[Mark Ellsworth]

03:16 PM on 05/26/2010

Ward Vaughn was a manufactured candidate - he didn't even live here in Idaho. I think he was part of a misguided RNC effort to target Walt Minnick - the only Democrat to hold that senate seat in over 20 years. I guess they just assumed people in Idaho were too stupid to catch on to all this plagiarism. They thought wrong.

[joannenj]

11:48 PM on 05/26/2010

Oh thank you! I was beginning to wonder about the education system in Idaho. How he figured that no one would notice that he copied, virtually word-for-word, one of the most popular speeches the President ever delivered is beyond understanding.

[ScottyBob]

03:14 PM on 05/26/2010

Despicable.

[George Global]

01:14 AM on 05/27/2010

I hope you're saying that like Sylvester.

[anniegirl9]

03:01 PM on 05/26/2010

I’m not sure which was more stupid.
Plagiarizing Obama’s speech or actually thinking he could pull it off.

[Joan E. Dowlin]

11:15 PM on 05/26/2010

I guess they figured it worked for Obama so it might work for Ward. If you are going to plagarize at least change more of the words.

[George Global]

01:15 AM on 05/27/2010

Well then, he'd have to know synonyms...what are the chances of that?

[LaughALott]

03:00 PM on 05/26/2010

ROFLOL, OMG

[LeFlaneur]

02:54 PM on 05/26/2010

The tip off was when Ward said: "I love you back..."

[Scalie]

02:52 PM on 05/26/2010

The repub candidates and the teabaggers are truly scary in that they don't have education in politics, the constitution or how to run a country forward. They are so uninformed. Their best offer to the American people, is to take the country back to where it was "many" years ago. Back where many Am people died for its freedoms. They stole BO and team grass roots and internet political organizational skills, and now his words. LOL!

[siamao]

03:06 PM on 05/26/2010

Scalie, so now I finally get it, thanks to your post! When the TPrs say that they want to
"take our country back," they don't me to "retrieve" it our oust it from Democrats. Instead,
they mean that they want to "take our country back . . .to 1950 and beyond, all the way
back to 1865 if necessary. Whew! Now, I feel so much better about what they're trying
to do! LOL! I've fanned you for your wisdom, and hope for a return fan in the spirit of
networking here at HP.