John McCain is "ready on Day One" and Clinton is "ready for change". Deval Patrick, at least, is a good friend of Obama's.

It's ironic that the media and other candidates flame Obama for being vapid, when a year ago they flamed him for being too specific and not inspirational enough.

I kinda do have a problem with it.

But then again I also have a problem with Obama using a teleprompter when delivering many of his speeches. So...

I don't think it's a big deal, BUT...

It does go to show that a politician is a politician. Obama's strategy has been to use speech to gain momentum. So uplifting people is not what he does naturally, but what he set out to do. I think that's what is being discovered with this little scandal. And it rings true with what I've been saying since day one: it's not that Hillary is not free of scandal, it's that she doesn't pretend to be holier than it. We don't know what's in Obama's closet. If something as silly as this is getting so much attention, can you imagine what may be in store for him once the Republicans have a fair shot? Yes, yes, I know. Hillary is also a big target. But the disappointment and shock that wonderful Obama is just your average politician will be devestating to the Democratic party. Hillary's been there done that. So she can actually focus on getting shit done and not on pleasing the crowds.

Clinton and McCain have been stealing a lot from Obama's speeches too. Sometimes it's deliberate but I think what sometimes happens in each campaign is that speechwriters under pressure cut corners and don't tell the candidates.

In any case I've never been all that impressed with Obama's speeches. He gives a solid, decent speech but where he really impresses me is in debates. He comes across as so informed and sharp in them, I'm surprised he doesn't do more.

This is it? That's the best they can do against him? They've searched his background up and down and all they can come up with is this?

How lame and desperate.

Former Bill Clinton speechwriter David Kusnet scoffed at the idea that the Obama-Patrick similarities constituted a modicum of political scandal. Politicians, he noted, borrow from each other all the time. Even Sen. Clinton.

"If plagiarism is borrowing rhetoric without permission," Kusnet wrote. "Patrick most likely is happy to have Obama sound similar notes, such as hope and inspiration being more than 'just words.'" Even if Obama and Patrick didn't know each other, they might use some of the same phrases because similar public figures frequently draw on common streams of public rhetoric... Does what Obama did come close to what [Sen. Joseph] Biden did [in 1988]? Absolutely not. Next scandal, please."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/1 ... 87361.html

People can decide for themselves if they think this is important or not...but how is not the same thing as what Biden did in 1988?

Whether this is a big deal or not, it's no big deal compared to Clinton's assertion that any state she loses is "no big deal". She's lost half the states in this country already.

since when is 21 half of 50? (excludes DC)

what did he do?

You do realize that Patrick "borrowed" much of the stuff from Barack's 2004 address at the Democratic Convention when he ran his campaign for governor, don't you? They've both admitted that they are close friends and David Axelrod manages both of them and that they constantly exchange ideas.

So should Patrick's name then be on the ballot in November?

He stole from a British politician that he didn't even know. Barack had permission from Patrick to use these themes and language, just like Patrick had Obama's permission to use HIS themes (from the 2004 Dem. Convention and Barack's 2004 Senate campaign) in the 2006 governor election.

I don't know, should Hillary? Ya know, the one who stole a pretty specific line from John Edwards during one of the debates. The one who doesn't give credit to her ghost writer for her book and claims she wrote the entire thing longhand? Yeah, she's not really in a spot to criticize here considering she's been stealing Barack's campaign slogans left and right.

I agree, definitely. He's just a typical politician.

I am sure even Abraham Lincoln (probably the greatest orator in American History) borrowed from others.I mean we are human we are all inspired by stuff we read, hear, etc. If you think there is somebody out there who are saying 100% original ideas then I like to meet this person. It is funny that Hillary is doing this when she stole half of John Edward's ideas. She is nothing but a hypocrite.

so the main video on youtube has disappeared. shady.

clinton has stolen her whole campaign off bill clinton, should he be on the ballot and not her?

This is the experience and results she speaks of when she attacks Obama. Bill came to Lubbock this past weekend and half the speech was about his administration instead of Hillary. When he did talk about her, he did a VERY good job. He's still so much better at connecting with people than she is. But of course, when he would attack Obama it came across pretty funny because of the fact that he was the change candidate in 1992 and has flip-flopped on the issue. At least it wasn't overnight though like McCain and waterboarding or the telecom thing. Bill built up his disdain for the change style campaign over 16 years.

I'm an English graduate student, and in our department, plagiarism is the gravest of sins, and reason enough to expel someone. Whether Patrick gave Obama permission or not is ENTIRELY unimportant; the moment Obama passed off those words as his own without citing Patrick, he plagiarized. And you cannot randomly come up with something so eerily similar. That's complete bollocks. It is absurd to think that two politicians could separately come up with the idea to counteract the exact phrase "just words" with several exactly similar quotes.

And the "everybody else does it" excuse doesn't fly; so what if everyone else does it? They're all wrong. If Obama is held to a different standard, it is because he has set himself up as being, with respect to his language, different from the status quo. Words is all he's got; it's what has enabled him to inspire people. You don't really have that with Clinton or McCain (I'd say Huckabee is the closest), neither of whom are very good speakers.

But whatever. This is business as usual.

Exactly. He ain't perfect. It's definitely a chink in his armor.

Hillary needs to check herself:

Ownage.