Monday, February 18, 2008

Hillary: Fighting With Fire

Now, here's an attack with merit. Of course, kudos for David (and tblade) catching this before the Hillary campaign did. And let's also not forget that plagiarism is a serious issue, one that's cost other candidates the campaign in elections past. People go to speeches expecting them to be original to that candidate, even if they're playing off of common ideas. Just because Obama shares Patrick's chief political message guy, that doesn't give Obama carte blanche to steal whatever catch phrases and speeches he wants from Patrick's campaign (and to do poor versions of them, to boot). If he wants to borrow ideas and phrases, that's great - and he should - but he needs to at least preface it with, "as my good friend, the Governor of Massachusetts, likes to say..."

5 comments:

massmarrier said...

This is more like fighting with piss. It could easily backfire when Obama and Patrick say something like, "Let's stay with ideas. He and I share those ideas and ideals."

This is not her smartest move...very Karl Rove.

Mark D. Snyder said...

I prefer Obama. But I totally agree this rediculous. The similarities between their campaigns were neauseating from the start and i think perhaps one reason why Obama didn't do better here - becaues people were like we just saw that campaign and we don't feel what we got out of it yet.

Ryan said...

Come on, Mike. That was absurd. It was a blatant rip from the Deval campaign. Voters deserve to know if you're borrowing from the ideas of a different candidate and where those ideas are coming from. That's just common sense.

It's not an easy choice, Mark, but between the constant stream of stuff like this or the fact that he chooses to prop up "ex-gay" reverends in his campaign is just a total turnoff. I can't vote for someone who does that kind of stuff, or supports liquid coal in any fashion, or praises Ronald Reagan in any way... or stumps on social security reform. I just can't do it.

massmarrier said...

Ryan, my point was how this will play. You're pretty anti-Obama and are letting your emotions drive your analysis. A second wishy-washy liberal parroting another is not a scandal, just a flash of arrogance and/or dumbness. Both Obama and Clinton have a lot to answer for on the votes they made and blew off in the Senate. The games have begun, but this slap on the back of the head is far from a deciding move.

Ryan said...

I don't think I'm letting my emotions get in the way. I've always taken plagiarism very, very, very seriously - with several blogs about it in the past, be it Keller's book which has more plagiarized words than not or various examples from newspapers, especially when they steal ideas from blogs without attribution. Obama simply should have said, "my good friend, the Governor of Massachusetts, likes to say..." to start off that speech... and there'd be nothing here to talk about.

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