Lynn Sweet

Your post is what I would expect from you. Thanks for keeping Hillary straight.

You do not need to be a student of journalism to know the fact that "Comments are free, but fact are sacred". Speeches are a pivot on which Politics revolves.It is a vehicle or channel to communicate to the public. Strong lines by MLK, JFK have become so popular that people use it all the time. At this juncture, Senator Obama using those lines or those by Davel Patrick his friend are only a reminder of the FACT that speeches are not just ordinary cheap words. But contains such strong emotions that can positively re-define a nation and inspire the people. It is quite admirable that at this critical time in history since JFK and Reagan, Americans have come to behold another insprational figure in the person of Senator Obama. It will be a shame to allow cheap political spin machine of the Clinton Campaign to deny us this opportunity to put devisiveness and racial hatred behind us and march forward together into the 21st century. Exploiting racial defernnces and sex, down playing one speeches and words are Hillary's Campaign tactic to win election. But she is forgeting what is going to happen after she wins the election. How will she heal the wounds. I quess through her recent divide and rule style of operations on the senate floor? The truth is that we will end up being more devided that we have ever been. She wants us to see ourselves as "black" "white" "Latinos" in this election in order to exploit the devide. The implication is that in doing so, Senator Clinton and her husband continue to diminish the chance of the Democrats to win this election. "That is the hand writing on the wall"
This country desire a leader who will bring us all together and heal our racial devides. Out diversity should not devide us, but rather unite us. We are a unique nation.
Remember that with eight straight wins by Obama and ahead in polls,the Clintons are fighting like crazy using all negative tactic in their arsenal to pull Senator obama down. He is being watched even when he sneezes or coughs. All progrssive minded americans should remain steadfast in support of their candidate Senator Obama. And together we will change this politics of hatred and devisiveness. Senator HillaryClinton and husband Former President Bill Clinton are fighting like a drowning man that will hold on to anything ( dirty political smear) to survive,But ironically end up drawing both to the ocean floor: giving the Republican an undeserved victory. A word is enough for the wise.

It does not matter where the lines came from.......they are true!And, I might add, I heard Hillay's speech that same night and her tone was different she was trying her best to be someone she is not. She said things that Barack has always been saying.....talk about not being original. I almost was sick thinking of how she is now trying to sound hopeful without using the word hope. No one is falling for that garbage. I am sure she will probably cry tonight before the primaries tomorrow in Wisconsin.....my prediction....it's another sweep for Barack and another one bites the dust. Who needs the same old politics...the Clintons in the white house with the same old ....same old....same old....same old....wake up america....we are the ones we are waiting for and the time for change has come....and not just change but change we can truly believe in. I WILL VOTE FOR MCCAIN IF HILLARY IS NOMINATED.

This is stealing. If you were in school you would receive a F. A few years ago a popular Pastor had to resign because he stole a sermon. Is this what we have to look forward to if he is elected. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

Very scary!!I'm from Boston and I can tell you that there is a strong parallel between Patrick and Obama.I supported Deval Patrick as well as my family because he "inspired us" talked about "change" but people tried to warn us saying that he did not have the experience that alot of what Patrick was saying was just "airy rhetoric". We didn't listen and we should have because Deval Patrick has been a nightmare in office here in Massachusetts!! The joke on the hill is that everyone asks "who will be Governor today??"Because Deval Patrick is NEVER there he is out working for Obama all the time and Boston has suffered because of it!! This is one reason why Obama lost big time here in Massachusetts!!we want substance we want Hillary!! she won here in Boston,listen to the people of Massachusetts learn from us DO NOT make the mistake we made!! VOTE HILLARY

Obama is guilty of plagiarism which, by any definition, is lying and cheating. He is supposed to set an example as a Presidential candidate. If high school students plagiarize they are reprimanded and failed, if college students plagiarize they are expelled, if academics or business people plagiarize, they lose all credibility and can be fired and this will mean that their whole life's work is down the tubes. Why should a presidential candidate be allowed to get away with it? What example is this for young people? And his offhand rejection of the criticism suggests that he couldn't care less.

Chris Morton

Much ado about very little. I won't say "nothing" because then I would be quoting shakespheare. There are terrible wars in the middle east and africa, a MediCare crisis, a crisis in the banking industry, global warming and we are worried about who repeated MLK's words "I have a dream" first, second, third?

This is a non story - it makes good filler for the newspaper and radio talk shows but rates just above zero on a scale of 1 to 10

Hillary....we are sounding desparate to attack him on this kind of stuff..whats wrong with your campaign? Do not let them do this kind of stuff...Please. Just like with Florida and Michigan, when we do this kind of desparado politics, we look like sore losers and is only amplifies that we are behind.

Go back and look at his other speeches and see if his inspirational "words" came from other parts of other speakers speeches. I think the speeches that he gives from his teleprompters should be reviewed.

“Sen. Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language. The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Sen. Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did.”

-Deval Patrick

This is definitely pulling at straws...story over...

This is not the only time Obama used this same speech-and other similar speeches and phrases used by Deval Patrick- The more important point is that words only matter if they are backed up with experience. I have a dream would have meant nothing if MLK hadn't protested, been beaten, jailed etc. Deval Patrick had great words & speeches as well-Not enough experience to back them up. Obama says they "riffed: off of each -Fine-Whether that was right without attribution or not is another matter. The important thing is that when Patrick took office after wooing Massachusetts residents with his words-he made one rookie mistake after another.
Bright Star of Mass. Tarnished by Lapses
'Don't Give Up on Me,' Gov. Patrick Pleads
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 18, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701005.html

Words matter when you are an orator. As president, it's an important component but in the final analysis - it's action that matters. Obama is all talk and little action and now we find out that he even steals his "talk" and do not credit the author. Jesus! Are people really this deluded about him? And to his deluded fans, the fact that he plagiarized a speech is Hillary's fault!! It's beginning to look sad, you know.

Yes! What a story! It's as if a FAN of Fox 'news' had sued Al Franken for the 'fair and balanced' phrase--because Fox News knew it wasn't copyright or any other violation--but wait--THEY didn't know that, did they? THAT'S WHAT I EXPECT REAL NEWS MEDIA PEOPLE TO KNOW!
Wow-one day after Sen. Obama meets with John Edwards and da honeymoon is OVER? Given that the speech in question was given over two weeks ago--what was that timing decision all about with the boys and girls on the bus and their editors?
On a more serious note--it was nice to see the Senator handle this so well today, on a day when other media outlets are labeling populist any discussion of CEOs making more in 10 minutes than workers do in a year [oops--did I just plagiarize Sen . Obama? Or was it Sen. Edwards? Or was it any bloke in the street with a (wait for it! ) BRAIN!

Words are very powerful, as you no God did not phyically created one single thing. God spoke everything into existence. I know people who have been doing a job for 20 years and still can't do the job correctly the only reason they have the job is because who they know. I know people who have no experience and walk right in take control of the situation, its not the experience you have it's the desire and the power thats lies inside one that make you a leader. Leaders are not made they are born it is a manifestation from birth, because if they were made our country wouldn't be in a mess... Fighting a war that we shouldn't be fighting, housing market the worse it has ever been, who can afford the oil prices? The schools system is still from the 1950's. But one thing is for sure, you will defend wrong because that's how you are made. But I know deep inside you can't deny truth because God lies there. Ask youself what is truth????

Yes there's much ado about nothing, sort of. I have noticed that whenever I hear Obama talk about some idea of his or position of his, Hillary has already said it or done it. I do wish her campaign would point out these things more.

I think Obama is an opportunist. The poster who spoke about Deval Patrick turning out to be all words is how Obama has struck me from the beginning.

I'm sick of the fawning over this guy AND his wife. Whenever Hillary spoke out early in Bill Clinton's campaign in 91, she was vilified for some of the same qualities that are now seen as positive in Mrs. Obama.

Obama talks about turing the page. It sounds like he took a couple of lines out of Deval Patrick's book. This is not honest and if he really is calling for change he should be honest. We have had enough dishonesty in President Bush. He is even stealing Hillary's message of solutions, he stole Edwards message of hope and Two America's. He tries to sound like JFK,MLK,RFK and now this. The media has given him a free pass. Never a cross word. I have never seen anything like it. It is time we look at him more closely. He is trying to be hired for the most important job in the country. We shouldn't get so caught up in emotion but think about who can best solve the problems of this country. Obama when asked what he did in the years he has been Senator could only come up with two things when asked by the moderators of a debate. The lobbyist statements turned out they could approach him while he ate standing up and a bill he co sponsored that was never passed. This is someone who votes present over 100 times. I want someone in the oval office who will make the tough decisions with wisdom, not take the easy way out. We need to be careful what we do or we will wind up with another Bush.

Obama is reminding me of a real phony more and more each day. After listening to so many of his speeches I first thought well, they are really filled with alot of preaching type quotes...maybe he was going to get on with the substance later in the speech..he did not. Then after watching Hillary's speeches and then listening to him again the following day he is repeating exactly word for word what she had said...AFTER he had said he disagreed with her. EX: He made it clear that HE did NOT want universal healthcare but rather healthcare that would be there if people CHOSE to take it. NOW, he is saying universal healthcare that leaves out no one!!! YES it does..atleast the plan he SAID he wanted ..left out 15 million people. Finally, now he is quoting word for word Deval Patrick?? I have to wonder if this guy has ANYTHING to offer that HE himself came up with or actually KNOWS???

audacity of hope

vs.

miracle of competency

Obama is just another polician with a good line. How are his promises any different than Bush's "I'm a uniter, not a divider." I'm tired of Government by the well intentioned. We need someone who knows how to get things done. We already know what those things are.

I wish when I gave speeches in College my Professors would allow me to "borrow" my friends messages and it not be considered plagiarism. The Republicans today are attacking HRC because they know how easy Obama will be to beat!

Obama should apologize for his plagerism and as time goes on, hopefully sooner than later, the pattern of deciet will continue to emerge. Obama is a hypocrite but Obamatrons and the media are blinded by emotion.

That a false man of little of any substance like Obama can garner so much mindless support for the democratic presidential nomination is scary.

America has lost its sole and Obama would have governement be the new religion of the masses - Liberation theology.

Hilary Clinton has the substance and experience we need to help Amercians navigate these dangerous and troubling times by creating opportunities and help people to repair and to heal the damage done to the American dream.

I love Democrats and people who say if one or the other Democratic candidate gets nominated, I'm voting for the Republican candidate.

Who said "A house divided cannot stand?" Abe Lincoln?

Who said "We can't keep electing the same people and expect diffewrent results?" Obama did, but Albert Einstein said " The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results"...so I guess paraphrasing isn't technically plagiarizing...or is it?

Obama must have picked up a book of famous quotayions to use for his speeches and just forgot to give his credit where credit is do. I remeber seeing a couple of his speeches when he was running for Illinois state senate and back then he used to quote MLK alot about how "the rainbow bends towards justice" or something to that effect but back then, he gave MLK credit for the lines he was using. Maybe he's too big for that. What made MLK great was that he was humble as well as eloquent. BO is just puffery and smoke and mirrors...

Didn't Hillary Clinton use the chant "Yes We Will" last weekend? Is she a plagiarist? This is a complete non-issue. First of all, Deval Patrick SUGGESTED that Obama use the line. You can't "steal" something that someone else gave you to use. It's just another desperation tactic on the part of a candidate who sees her ship sinking.

OMG! The desperation is so thick you can cut it with a knife. This is the best they can come up with? If this is all the 'dirt' they can come up with on Obama, it's almost over. Stick a fork in HC, she's done.

Plagiarism. Schmagiarism. Hillary's losing ground and grasping at straws. She might want to remember who mentioned "change" first before throwing stones....what a joke.

I wish the National Media, ( Television ) would pick up this article, Obama needs more experience!It wasn't so long ago the media was after the Clintons for something called Whitewater, after years of trying to get them , it was found that they did nothing wrong. Where is that media now, Obama's land purchase from Rezko wreaks of dirty dealing. Thank you Sun Times for trying.

Hi- Note that the bulk of Obama's Selma speech - "Joshua Generation" was cribbed froma Michael Farris book and organization of that name- oddly, based on Karl Rove's "Moses Generation".

The core of Obama's oft touted anti-Iraq speech - the dustbin of history part- is lifted from Leon Trotsky.

This tracking down of Obama liftings is getting to be like fish in a barrel (who said that?). No wonder students love him- it's how they write papers!

This is serious because it only makes you think how much of the rest of his speeches are taken from someone else's playbook. Ever speech is going to be dissected now and suspicion will be an issue. This sounds to me like the Superbowl all over again! The one team kept winning and winning and then when their cheating was exposed they couldn't come through in the end. I was discussing politics with a woman in Wisconsin. Much to my amazement she would not accept the fact that Senator Obama was not actually an Islamic fundamentalist. I told her how ridiculous that way of thinking was and couldn't she see it was propaganda and lies but she said she did her research and she knows it's true. It made me realize that this is going to be a swift boat campaign all over again. They are going to do the same thing to Obama as Kerry and scare the Republicans and Independents into voting against him. To me I never thought anyone would ever buy that story but people are and if he wins - here we go again. Ugh! Hillary Clinton is the only way to go.

The problem is that Obama's campaign is based upon speeches, not accomplishments and the speeches and image of Deval Patrick were created by David Axelrod and David Axelrod is using the same formula with Obama. We are electing a President, not a Candidate.

Americans can't stop talking about Obama--and that's a good thing. But people need to be talking about the crucial topics that matter.
Non sequitur notwithstanding to the topic (there's way too many posts on the other "plagiarism" blog), I wish to address the plagiarism debate.

Similar to President Bill Clinton comparing Obama's win in SC to Jesse Jackson's win there in '84 and '88, the Clinton camp now says that Barack Obama stole an oratory recipe from Massachussetts Gov. Duvall Patrick, Obama friend and supporter. It either suggests that in order for Obama to be the new Pied Piper he has to somehow borrow from another successful politician. Despite the fact that Obama won two previous freshman political campaigns in '96 and '04. If memory serves, Patrick wasn't elected till '06 as Governor... matter-of-factly, the speech in question was from '06 too. It's almost as if the Clinton camp is saying to me "don' t vote Clinton because she's the best candidate; rather, vote against Obama because we've exposed him." Clinton-Wolfson's argument has little merit for several reasons.
In no particular order:

1) Politicians borrow and steal from one another all the time. Politicians also borrow famous coinages from celebs and sports figures-- like the one "we didn't lose... the clock just ran out". Not plagiarism, but Mike Huckabee was asked by a famous musician to stop playing a song the rocker had co-wrote decades ago.
2) Duval Patrick and Barack Obama are amigos and actually support each other in politics. They trade thoughts and ideas over time.
3) Should anti-Obamacists be excited because Patrick and Obama are contemporaries? They both quoted from King, Roosevelt, and Kennedy. Does that make it okay, that these were public domain quotes?
4) Both McCain and Clinton borrowed "Yes We Can" from Obama for effect. Obama borrowed "Yes We Can" and "Si Se Puede" from Cesar Chavez.
5) As a poet and writer (among other things) I borrow from people with my own twist but I exceed the safety standards on originality. Because I am opinionated, I borrow and steal from myself to get "my" point across. I'm gonna copy + paste this comment to another blog because I don't feel I should have to re-type it. Is someone gonna call me out on that?
6) At worst it was a quote inside a quote, a speech inside a speech. Patrick used two or three familiar quotes in his speech.
7) Most importantly, I agree that it was the right thing to say at the time. Both Patrick and Obama faced similar criticism. Who cares from whence it came. "Desperate times might call for desperate measures", I say to Obama critics.

BTW I am an Independent voter and will be voting for Obama '08 because I like his resume' and his ideas.

YES WE PUEDE!!

It's not about Obama's lifting of the entire passage anymore...even though the particular lifting is full of irony...trying to express that words do matter, using an entire section of another's speech.( the way, the two politicians had the same campaign manager).

No, now it's about how Obama is handling being discovered... saying they were friends, making weak excuses, accusing others of same, etc. He lifted the exact words and he should have just been honest and said so. Not a good omen.

Plagerizing does matter--it has destroyed campaigns previously. Obama can do wrong. I think he is showing what that he is just a crafty politician who speeches are being to sound like recycled informericals.

Mr. Obama forgot to add some other key "words". For instance, "Read my lips, no new taxes". Or how about, "There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, everyone knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction". The reality is, words do have power, and that power can and does mislead. Anyone can make promises. What did former president Bush find regarding his promise of, "Read my lips, no new taxes"? He found that making the promise was easy. It's always easy to promise people what they want to hear. In order to fulfill those promises, it takes experience, ability, and hard work. And of course the intelligence to promise only things which you can realistically attain. Words without plans are misleading. I beg anyone to look at the promises Mr. Obama made to Louisiana regarding levees, etc. and show me realistic plans he has to fulfill them.

As far as plagarism goes, has anyone noticed that Obama also "borrows" many phrases from Morpheus in the Matrix movies? Especially from the first film in the series.

There is no way for Senator Obama to claim, after-the-fact, that he BORROWED the speech. That is ridiculous. Can you imagine a student of law giving that excuse to a professor? - of course not. Someone running of the Presidency of the United States does not get a pass on plagiarism. This is, unfortunately, inexcusable. I hope the folks in Wisconsin, Hawaii, Texas and Ohio take notice - I know they are here in Pennsylvania.

This is precisely why if Hillary wins the nomination I will vote for McCain. I'm serious about this. When the Clintons left the White House eight years ago I was sad to see them go and hoped one day they would return. I no longer feel this way as I am insulted by their sleazy politics.

As for using other people lines. I think Hillary has used some of her husbands by saying, "What's wrong with American can't be fixed by what's right with America." Her husband used the very same line at his inauguration. I guess this is the stuff their new campaign manager (spin doctor) is coming up with? You are insulting the American people with these elementary school tactics you're trying to pull off.

It's really sad to see and hear.

I am surprised that Hillary is attacking Obama's honesty. The words Clinton and Honesty go toget