The Wolfson Plagiarism Attack Is Ridiculous

Howard Wolfson is accusing Senator Obama of plagiarizing a speech passage from Governor Deval Patrick.

Wolfson said: "Sen. Obama is running on the strength of his rhetoric and the strength of his promises and, as we have seen in the last couple of days, he's breaking his promises and his rhetoric isn't his own."

Obama closely echoed a passage from a speech that Deval Patrick, now the Massachusetts governor, used at a campaign rally when he was running for that office in 2006.

Governor Patrick, however, says that he and Senator Obama have discussed this idea on the phone several times during the primary campaign. Nevertheless, this really is a desperate attack. After all, politicians repeat similar themes all the damn time. It's like attacking a politician for wearing a suit and a tie -- or a pants suit and pearls. You can get away with this kind of an attack, but it's not entirely genuine, and it's all too easy to counter-attack.

For instance, I looked up Senator Clinton's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner speech from last week. Here's a particularly familiar line:

"Are you ready to take back the White House..."

That sounds an awful lot like this one:

"...and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! YAAARRR!"

She could easily have said, "Are you ready to reclaim the White House?" But instead, she used the same words made famous by Howard Dean four years ago.

But that's small-time. Here's a major problem for Senator Clinton's campaign if her staff and surrogates really want to engage in this so-called "plagiarism" debate. At the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Senator Clinton employed what's called "anaphora" -- a common technique of repeating a word or phrase for emphasis in a speech:

I see an America where we stand up to the oil companies...

I see an America where we say that 47 million people uninsured...

I see an America where we have schools worthy...

I see an America where college is affordable again...

And so forth. It was a seriously awesome section of her Jefferson-Jackson speech. It's a shame that (again, as long as the gloves are off and there has to be this ridiculous "plagiarism" debate) she lifted the "I see an America" anaphora from other politicians, including then-Governor Jimmy Carter. June, 1976:

I see an America poised not only at the brink of a new century, but at the dawn of a new era of honest, compassionate, responsive government.

I see an America with a tax system that does not steal from the poor and give to the rich.

I see an America with a job for every man and woman who can work, and a decent standard of living for those who cannot.

I see an America in which my child and your child and every child receives an education second to none in the world.

I see an America in which Martin Luther King's dream is our national dream.

I see an America on the move again, united, its wounds healed, its head high, a diverse and vital nation, moving into its third century with confidence and competence and compassion, an America that lives up to the majesty of its Constitution and the simple decency of its people.

I also discovered that the "I see an America" line has been used by Congressman Kucinich:

I see an America where equal access and equal rights are obtained by all

And John Edwards with the "I see an America" anaphora:

I see an America where last year the CEO of one of the largest health insurance companies in America made hundreds of millions of dollars in one year. I see an America where ExxonMobil's profits were $40 billion just a couple of years ago. Record amounts, record profits.

Hell, a Republican running for Congress in the New York 20th named John Wallace used the "I see an America" anaphora (pdf file -- there's a whole page of it, but Wallace is not worth quoting here).

What's the next attack, then? Senator Obama stole his haircut from whoever? Senator Obama's gestures are lifted from what's his name? Seriously, is this what Howard Wolfson and Mark Penn have been reduced to? Senator Clinton, if you really want to win this thing, you need to fire these guys.

Read more news and blog posts on accusations of plagiarism against Obama

Cross posted at Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome Blog! GO!

Comments

[Mavin1620]

Thanks for the thoughtful article.

[antirepublocrat]

Don't all these Presidential candidates have speechwriters? I'd be surprised if ANY of their words are, strictly speaking, their own. What's wrong with Deval Patrick being one of Obama's speechwriters?

But even if the candidates do not write their own speeches, they do approve of them, and it does seem that Obama has been approving better, more inspirational and charismatic speeches than any of the others.

[Susan1968]

Considering Clinton doesn't brag about her "great speeches" like Obama did in last night's debate, I'd say your point is moot.

Ironic that B.O. DID brag last night and today proof surfaces that he "BORROWED" yet another speech from Deval Patrick.

Obama lifts a second speech from his buddy Patrick.

This goes beyond plagiarism. Obama is "borrowing" a PERSONNA which proved to win Deval the Illinois Governor's office.

It's markeing 101. It's like using SEO Search Engine Words that work best in your " target market."

I should know - I'm an advertising copywriter (HILLARY I'M AVAILBALE FOR ADVICE!)

Here is Deval Patrick on June 3, 2006, according to an 11-second YouTube video posted Tuesday afternoon:

"I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I'm asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

Here is Barack Obama on Nov. 2 in Manning, S.C., according to an 11-second YouTube video posted nine minutes later:

"I'm not just asking you to take a chance on me. I'm also asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

[swkidder]

Bob: Thank you ... and now can we all go back to being grown-ups concentrating on the issues and the responsibility of selecting a Democratic candidate for President who can end 8 years of Neocon Nightmare Rule ... that would be the job of grown-ups who care about the world they intend to leave their children.

[Toerag]

Great article! Obama did a great job defending himself at the TX debate on this situation - then Hillary went on to plagiarise her husband as well as John Edwards (during the TX debate)! She meant well, but the whole plagiarism argument goes both ways. The YouTube clips of her "Yes we will!" chant and the "Si se puede!" comments in TX are the most rediculous rip-offs I've seen in a long time. It makes her look really pathetic, which I think is a shame because I kind of still like her. Her waste of money strategists should have given her much better guidance through this whole campaign.

[ndolomar]

This post is not about "evening the score"; it is about showing how ridiculous this whole "plagiarism" thing is. (on a positive note, it's caused people to spell "plagiarism" correctly a lot more often)

Bill Clinton, 92: "The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time."

Hillary Clinton, 2/21/08 debate: "You know, the hits I"ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.

[AxelDC]

Like all of Clintons' political attacks this year, this one has hurt their campaign far more than Obama.

Not only does this come across as silly, it reveals that the Clintons planted the YouTube videos and lied about it. I'd rather have a minor citation error than another Richard Nixon.

Meanwhile, she parades around using Obama's campaign slogans as her own: "Change" and her narcissistic "Yes She Can".

[jwod]

If anyone doesn't cringe from supporting Hillary over this crap, they're neither conscious nor conscientious.

[RumiSouth]

THANK YOU BOB!

This plagiarism accusation has backfired on Clinton. She's looking desperate.

[stoprollingover]

I wish I believed it was true that the plagiarism accusation has backfired on Clinton, but even with all the efforts by people like Bob Cesca and people like us to point out Hillary's far more egregious lifting of the words of others, all I have heard on television are constant references to charges of "plagiarism" against OBAMA, never against her. The news media have helped to propagate this garbage and have not, to my knowledge, called her out on her own "plagiarism."

[Nonamnesiac]

This was really a stupid, desperate attack by Hillary and her allies. This was not as if Obama "plagarized" someone's private work. He "plagarized" statements like "I have a dream", "All we have to fear is fear itself" and other similar public, non-copyrighted statements that the MA governor used and that many other Dems have used.



What a bunch of desperate morons to assert a "plagarism" attack based upon that. It's like saying when someone says the Pledge to the Flag, they are plagarizing.

[StephenJK]

Your argument is so flawed it's not even funny. Nice pretzel logic.

[raslebol]

What I find interesting in all of this, is the fact that the originators (if there is such a word) of the sentences are NEVER mentioned. To wit:

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself...": Franklin.

"All men are created equal..." : Jefferson.

"Ask not what your country can do for you..." : Kennedy.

"I have a dream..." : Martin Luther king.

These sentences have been part of our lexicon for years. We have all used them. We will continue to use them for years to come.
So, what's the problem?

[StephenJK]

Here's the problem: Obama used a complete passage almost EXACTLY the same way the original person used the passage and tried to pass it off on the unsuspecting listener as his own. You conveniently omit the fact that he the phrase "just words" was used behind all those great lines uttered by great people the same exact way Deval Patrick used them 2 years ago in a race only MA people knew about.

[Amomma]

The original author of the speech I believe his name is Deval Patrick?? gives credit to the owners of these lines. If you find his speech in it's full context on youtube, you will be stunned at the beauty of the words.

[US55588144]

According to the couple"s 2006 income tax return, Michelle's salary was $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, while he had a salary of $157,082 from the United States Senate. The total Obama income, however, was $991,296 including $51,200 she earned as a member of the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, plus investments and royalties from his books.
Isn't this enough to make her a Proud American?

[UrbanInterloper]

If you equate money with pride, you have my pity. 'nuff said. You get the candidate you deserve.

[Kirby]

I, a white American male, Republican by birth and circumstance, and who voted for Bush in the first election, became very unproud of my country when we did not allow Hans Blix to continue the search for WMDs, and preemptively destroyed Iraq, all for the neo-con position of making Israel safer for holding on to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. All of this was fed by intelligence lies from Israel to their neo-con cohorts in the Pentagon and the West Wing.
I am now proud again of my country, because I see that we are not a country totally inhabited by lemmings led by conspiritorial forces embedded in our own society and government, bound and determined to do the bidding of extremist zionists to the very end in an armageddon on behalf of an enlarged extremist Israel. There is hope for the non-lunatic majority of us to see stoppage of Israeli foot dragging on the road to a just settlement of the basic problem underlying the so-called problem between all Muslims and the West.
So, to Ms. McCain, taking others' words out of historical context is being out of order! But I guess she has to be proud of our approved carnage of Iraqis and Palestinians who have demonstrated against state terrorism directed against them.
Keep waking up, America, to the conspiracy afoot in our country, and let's collectively give it the big fcot in the buttocks.

[powerbroker08]

I, a White American male, Democrat by circumstances (Father was appointed Postmaster by FDR) and by idoleogy have been proud of what this country represents and a majority of its citizens as far back as I can remember. I have not been proud of the actions of this administration nor of those who would vote for this level of incompetence a second time ie Fool me once, and as Bushie would say "you know the rest".
There needs to be a change and I don't see either Democratic candidate taking us back to the days before big business and big media ran this country.

[US55588144]

I just was watching the Michael Moore movie "Roger and Me" and heard the expression "Yes we can", which is used constantly by Obama. But I never heard him credit Michael Moore or the movie. Sounds like Obama makes a habit of plagiarizing.

[UrbanInterloper]

Si se puede. It's not new, it's just sincere. That's the difference with Obama.

Speaking of plagiarizing, who was the original "change" candidate? Clinton? Didn't think so.

Bottom line: I'm through with petty, cynical, say-anything politics. Candidates can and do say whatever they like and can quote/borrow/steal/appropriate from anyone they like too, but they damn well better choose wisely and they damn well better mean it. Because if they don't, people can see right through it. And it's all too obvious who's the most sincere candidate in this race, and who has been the most consistent.

And it's not Ms. Day One, that's for sure.

[StephenJK]

Yeah sincerely pathetic.

[trippin]

Wolfson's comments are consistently ridiculous.

[gardenbookie]

Is this all the dirt they can dig up about Obama? They're really bottom-sucking.

[Kirby]

Oh, they'll think of something good, perhaps like character assassination. Maybe someone will take a picture of him beating his feet on the Mississippi mud, or in moving his feet whilst defecating in a public bathroom commode stall.
They're on the verge of being absolutely desperate - so we can expect anything. Pity of it all - we know they're out to destroy Obama.