Barack Obama And Why It Matters That He Plagiarized A Speech (At Least One That We Know Of)

As a child psychologist and psychoanalyst, I have worked with children and adolescents of all ages who come to me with every imaginable kind of problem (and some that are, quite frankly, unimaginable). Usually, the teenagers I see are there because they've gotten themselves into trouble, both at home and at school. The trouble could be drugs, it could be overly aggressive behavior, it could be truancy, it could be lack of respect shown to authority figures and, not uncommonly, it could be because he or she has gotten thrown out of school for plagiarism.

Any child over the age of, say, 8, knows it is not only morally wrong to sign your name to something you did not write but that it is a punishable act. Such punishment, when the child who commits the plagiarism is in high school or college, often includes expulsion from school. With kids ever more internet savvy (i.e., having access to the myriads of articles and papers written on any given subject by some supposedly obscure author) and school administrators and teachers trying to ensure that the teen does not "slip one past them," schools are increasingly using programs designed to detect whether, in fact, a piece of written work handed in by a student was actually written by that student and does not match, in phraseology or any other patterns that such programs detect, written work by someone other than the student. We, as a society, value honesty and integrity and one of the surest mark of a lack of both is a person's willingness to claim someone else's words (or work) as their own.

And this is why it matters that Barack Obama is now furiously trying to suggest that it's "no big deal" that he plagiarized his friend's, Deval Patrick's, speech. He's even claiming that Mr. Patrick told him to use the speech. Perhaps Mr. Patrick did. Perhaps Mr. Patrick told him to use the speech and never told him to say it was written by Mr. Patrick and not by Mr. Obama. It doesn't matter, actually, what Mr. Patrick said or did not say to Mr. Obama. What matters is that Mr. Obama passed this speech off as his own, adding only his by now customary flourishes of tone and inflection. That the man who has presented himself to this country as the man of integrity and change turns out to be a fraud — and that is what we call people who pretend that someone else's words are their own — must be a profound disappointment for his supporters, if they can be honest enough with themselves to admit it.

However, what's even more disheartening and heartbreaking is this: Mr. Obama, in his historic bid for the Presidency, represented an ideal with whom children from broken homes, of mixed racial origins, of no great means, of inner turmoil who seek refuge in drugs, could all look up to and strive to be. In one fell swoop of his unwritten-with pen, he has dashed the hope that here stood a man who pulled himself together and got it together.

Here stood a man who towered above others in his quest for decency and integrity. Here stood a man who played it straight and said it as he saw it. But Mr. Obama is not that man. This man, as it turns out, is just another guy who seems to have bought into his own hype about how wonderful he is even as he tries to convince us he is not simply a liar. Worse still, he has been shown to be a liar while he has paradoxically been running his entire campaign based virtually exclusively on his stellar character, a character he has claimed that is so different from all those Washington insiders he has sought to set himself apart from.

Listening to the pundits of Slate Magazine claim that this charge of plagiarism "won't stick" with the voters because "with Obama, there's no pattern of lying," only adds insult to injury. I'm sure that even Slate Magazine remembers that Mr. Obama's so-called autobiography, Dreams From My Father, was discovered not to be entirely factual, as well. It took Mr. Obama some time, as I recall, to finally admit that, yes, some of the characters were not real but were, rather, "composite" characters. In other words, they were fiction. Which means that, in other words, he lied about it and never told anyone that his autobiography was not only not entirely written by him (check with his ghost writer), but that his so-called life was not exactly what he claimed it was.

Children know that not telling the truth, either by omission or commission, is the definition of a lie. Perhaps there is more of a pattern to Mr. Obama's distortions and omissions than even these two rather egregious examples point to. As a clinician, I have found that if one lies about one or two things here or there and then makes light of those lies, and acts as if the ones who find this offensive are the ones making mountains out of molehills, you can almost take it to the bank that a deeper pattern of not telling it like it is exists. It's only a matter of time before it becomes more fully exposed. So, it's suffer the children yet again. Yet again, a grownup who might actually have served as the inspiration he so adamantly claims he is, turns out to be another scammer who, when caught in the scam, does what every child does: he says, "it's no big deal." And then he has the audacity to cast aspersions on the ones who caught him. Even the children I see don't do that.

So, here's the lesson these kids will learn if the media, as they seem likely to do, go too easy on Mr. Obama for this crime: The trick is in getting away with it. That's the lesson they will learn, when the sad thing is they could have learned so much more from him. Mr. Obama's dismissal of this fraudulent act and his other as "no big deals" undermines what parents and teachers have been trying to teach their kids about honesty and integrity, sometimes against very strong odds. They thought maybe in Mr. Obama they had a helping hand. They were wrong.

What they have instead is a man who, while seeking the highest office in the land, shrugs off a "crime" as no big deal, seeks to blame those who uncovered it, and arrogantly thinks he should not be held to the same standard to which we hold school children. I only hope for the sake of the children watching, that he is wrong.

As Mr. Obama using Mr. Patrick's speech says, "it's only words." Yes, Mr. Obama, words do matter, especially when they're lies.

Dr. Sylvia Welsh is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst. She is on the faculty of the NYU Psychoanalytic Institute and the faculty of the NYU School Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Welsh treats children, adolescents and adults, families and couples.

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

Comments

[V4Vigilance]

I guess I have another word to add to the list...

PLAGIARIST, DRUGS, CULT, BLACK, CULT, DRUGS, PLAGIARIST­...

I've said it before but it bears repeating, when there isn't anything good to say about your candidate I guess this is what passes for "support".

Q: What's that stench?

A: The desperation emanating from the Clinton camp.

OBAMA '08

[frustratedinohio]

Great post Sylvia. An expert has spoken. This article should be required reading for Obama-ites. (Part of the antidote.) But as you can see from the responses, it's not making a dent. However, it will sink in eventually, because the republicans are going to ram it down our throats. Get ready for President McCain.

His supporters are educated people? Where are their ethics? He's a THIEF! It's OBVIOUS!

[YellerDawg]

Senator Obama can do no wrong, in the eyes of some. I may yet vote for him, and for the first time in a long time, my vote in Texas will matter, but these wild-eyed crazies who think that destroying Hillary is good for the party do seem a little cult-like. They scare me, which makes me suspicious of Obama. It's hard to vote for someone with supporters like the irrational haters who parade themselves on Huffpo and call it intelligent discourse.

[treadway123]

What matters is Clinton used this when she stole from Jessie Jackson words-June Jordans poem and Norman hatchin song. Shame on Her! She stabed her own running candidate in the back and than acted like a angel doing it. This just shows she will do any thing for Power! She didn't give any one any chance before the wisconsin election to list the words she Plagiarizsed from other people! I just hope the people of texas gets the trueth in time! She's completely a lier and cheat! She will destroy the Demacratic Party!

[DTGB]

Sorta like how the GOP felt about Bush in 2004? I must agree, as I read these posts I'm surprised at the lack of intellegent discourse, the level of worship, the inability to acknowledge any weakness or shortcoming, it's like he's Jesus, no mistakes, no errors, no problems. It's not realistic. All politicains have issues, skeletons, problems, whatever, it should be okay.

[tom928]

True, it won't make a dent, but not because Obama supporters don't see it at all as a mistake on his part, but because Hillary supporters are so ridiculously exaggerating the significance of a friend borrowing a strong riff from a friend - Give me a break! I (and I suspect most) Obama supporters are not even, in fact, swayed by his speeches, but what can be heard in his sit-down conversational style: character, intellect, and better judgment than Hillary.

[ozamerican]

"What matters is that Mr. Obama passed this speech off as his own..."

Nonsense. By this logic, politicians couldn't use speechwriters. Singers couldn't use songwriters. Comedians couldn't use jokewriters. And Hillary shouldn't have used that ghostwriter (who wrote It Takes a Village, and who was never acknowledged). ALL OF THESE PEOPLE PASS MATERIAL PREPARED BY OTHERS OFF AS THEIR OWN.

Get real.

And no one could ever use

[ProgressiveNotLiberal]

Hillary lied about what Obama said regarding Reagan and so did Bill. What do you have to say about lying?

[ProgressiveNotLiberal]

More BS from Hillary supporters. Hillary stole "Fired up and ready to go" from Obama. What do you have to say about that?

[alexei]

The Obama followers are out in full force again. This in itself is a falsehood. Fired up, ready to go, is a NAACP line. Please make more comments to show your ignorance and bias.

[BohicaBabe]

Fired up and ready to go was ripped off from the South Carolina NAACP by Senator Obama.

Check it: http://web.charleston.net/news/2008/jan/04/obama_rally_call_has_s_c_naacp_roots26614/

Link courtesy of the Taylor Marsh.

[apcalc]

It does not exonerate Obama to say that Hillary borrows from speeches too.

This is the "change" Barack speaks of? Seems like same old, same old, to me.

[tecumseh80]

Are you kidding us with this...?

Do not use "the children" argument - it is sad and absolutely transparen­t...

[Amomma]

ARE YOU KIDDING tecumseh80? I'm raising two sons who would be kicked out of school for a stunt like this.

[YellerDawg]

That's true. Joe Biden was ridden out of a presidential bid for less, but don't expect the Obamaniacs to do anything but attack the messenger for this bad news.
"A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
But, I believe it only
Begins to live
That day."
Emily Dickinson

[timm0]

No one on the face of the earth is stupid enough to believe that everything any politician utters from a podium is perfectly unique and only written by their own hand. Words read on the floor of the House and Senate are written by aides. Press releases are written by aides. Stump speeches are written by friends, consultants, and dedicated writers. Plenty is written by politicians, but almost never ALL of what they read is self-authored.


You'd simply have to be completely out of your mind to believe otherwise. However, Ms. Welsh apparently believes that only the candidates are legally allowed to speak the words that they alone pen. This is about the deepest pool of naivete that I've seen in a long, long time.


The equivalent analogy for your kids is they do a group project and one of them reads a report (his assignment was to do the presentation, not the writing) to the class. Then he's thrown out of school. Makes sense. Tough love and so forth.

[Devilsh]

Really now? Stunt?... Using speach writers would? How about using material with permission? All of which Obama guilty of.

Just more feigned outrage by Clinton and her supporters. The only thing that matters is winning right?

[treadway123]

Keep in mind she did it to--------and I can name three peoples words she used in her speech I'm positive she didn't get permission from. Especially lthe words from Jessie Jacason's 1984 speech. Obama had permision to use those words-she didn't--------so make sure you point that out to your son's and the children Amomma.

[chefrasta]

I guess we know with this post of half truths bias and outright quackery who you support?

[cheforacle]

Besides the fact its not plagiarism, Hillary has appropriated even more words of Obama's (without his permission). As a psychiatrist I'm sure you are aware of how kids react to seeing one kid being treated one way and another being punished for the same thing. You are willing to accept a double standard. You should divulge if you have bias for Hillary or you are even more dangerous than what you ascribe to Obama.

[Amomma]

A phrase or slogan is on thing, but there has been a pattern of lifting whole paragraphs out of some other eloquent speech written in 2006? Obama was on the stage with the guy!! Come on shrink use your head.

[treadway123]

Your right cheforacle; Clinton borrowed words from Jessie jackson speech of 1984,June Jordan poem, and Norman Hatchin song writter and singer. I doubt if she had thier pemision. This is the list o words I know she stole from them. "Our time has come D.Nl.C." Jessie Jackson "w are the one's we been waiting for" June JOrdan and "A change is Comeing" Norman Hatchin---­----------­----------­----------­----I bselieve Obama had permision to use the words that he used. So I do believe if she wants to yell plagiarism----She'd better go to Law School-----or at least research her own work-----or maybe her speech writter she doesn't seem to keep up to date on.

[soneill]

Excuse me while I gag. The shared invocation of the immortal words of MLK and others is hardly "heartbreaking(?)" or plagiarism. For the CLintons, who gave us two shameful 2 years of impeachment proceedings to counter the big lie, to launch a charge of plagiarism, or the integrity of words, would be satire if someone made it up. As for who's who when it comes to actions vs. words, please see: Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_sandy_sa_080219_obama_or_clinton_3f_yo.htm
Obama or Clinton? You Decide Who's Words and Who's Actions

[TheSecularist]

What about Hillary's "plagiarism", Sylvia? What about all the little girls out there who view Hill as their roll model? What do they learn when they hear Hillary saying "Fired up and ready to go!"? And when she says "ready on day one"? Or, her "I am the candidate of change"? What did those little girls learn when they heard that Hillary can't manage money (i.e., campaign funds)? What will they learn when they hear Hillary trying to change the rules in order to win at any cost? If you're so concerned about the children, talk about that! Obama did not plagiarize.

[BohicaBabe]

Again, fired up and ready to go was ripped off from the South Carolina NAACP by Senator Obama.
Check it: http://web.charleston.net/news/2008/jan/04/obama_rally_call_has_s_c_naacp_roots26614/
Link courtesy of the Taylor Marsh.

[Cay]

I don't know about you, but I no longer speak aloud for fear of plagiarizing the millions of English-speaking people who have spoken before me.

[dtd]

And MLK borrowed much of the "dream" speach from a southern preacher that delivered it years before? What's your point?

[dtd]

Lady are you serious? You need to see a psychiatrist yourself? This is way over the top. Do you not realized that most politicians do NOT write their own speeeches. In fact the most famous speeches of all time, including Kennedy's and MLK's were written by others. This is just down right silly not to mention melo-dramatic.

[Cay]

Ms Welsch is not a psychiatrist - they are medical doctors. She is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. Just wanted to clear that one up.

[Rickandanumber]

Good point: the "Ask not what your country can do for you" line was written by John Kenneth Galbraith.­..

[StephenDedalus82]

It's so sad to see so many young people fall so hard for a fraud. Obama is a political product and has been just as packaged and sold as any other candidate. The big difference is he's running to be something different. It's a nice Orwellian reversal, but all it means is that he'll fall from a much higher level of expectations when he falls. And he will. Nothing in politics is 100% predictable, except perhaps that politicians invariably disappoint. The more Christ-like Obama's surrogates and fans paint him, the more of a phony he's going to look like when he fails to deliver. Just like Governor Patrick. Axelrod's strategy is very good at winning elections. But thoughtful voters need to think hard about whether that's a good enough reason to have him as our president.

[treadway123]

Let's get down to facts than shouldn't we? Clinton repeat ssentence "Our time has com D.N. C." she stole from Jessie Jackson S. Carolina speech in 1984. Her sentence "We are the one's we been waiting for" She stole frome June Jordan poem. While Her sentence "A change is comeing" she stole from a singer named Norman Hatchin. So if you want phoney--Look at Hillary clinton who hell's Plagiarism at Obama when she was the the only one who used other people's words without permission­.I'm sick of this back stabbing---she's ruining the Demacrate party. She's a divider and not a uniter. She polorize's the media reporters, and pits Republicans against Demacrates. You want to Win you'd better vote Obama-----------OF COURSE YOU COULD WAIT TILL BILL BLOWS UP IN ANOTHERS BY STANDERS FACE AND FINALLY COMMITT ASSUALT AS HE DID ON HIS MANAGER AS GOV.

[patrice37]

Who's Patrick Axelrod?

[Cay]

What is appealing about Obama is that he is not a packaged political product. He is a smart and charismatic man running a very successful campaign that presents his authentic self. There is plenty of information, sources and history to see who Obama is and to be inspired by what he could become.

[ATLiberal]

This is such thin gruel. Good luck making this stuff stick. I saw in the latest ARG poll at that HRC's negatives are up 10% over last week. No wonder.

[COwoman]

His whole speech??
His campaign co-chair and he have shared some rhetoric. Hillary and Bill have shared some rhetoric.
His whole speech??
Ummm....No­t.

It looks like your words are at best twisted and at worst...li­es.

[coonce]

You need to be FAIR and mention Hillary's plagiarizm too. And if you want to talk about people doing things ILLEGAL -- do you really want to be the one supporting the Clintons?

[apcalc]

Barack's speeches are his "meat and potatoes."



It doesn't exonerate him to say that others do it too.

This is "change"?