For some members of the press, one event from the recent Republican National Convention overshadowed all others — the apparent plagiarism in several lines of Melania Trump’s speech on the opening day of the convocation.
That some lines of the speech were borrowed from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention is not in dispute; however, there are several additions to the story that have been less well reported.
The first point that should be made is that there are bloggers who’ve shown that Michelle Obama’s speech wasn’t original, either; the current First Lady borrowed phrases from Rules for Radicals, a famous tract on community organizing by notorious leftist and Obama inspiration Saul Alinsky.
Compare Alinsky’s line, “The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be” to Michelle Obama’s utterance, “And Barack stood up that day, and he spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about ‘the world as it is‘ and ‘the world as it should be.'”
While inspirations often run deep, a public speech without a quote attribution may be beyond the pale. Michelle Obama’s free pass from the press at the time, compared to the articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other outlets regarding Melania’s speech at the GOP convention simply proves differing standards for the two major political parties.
And Michelle Obama isn’t the only Democrat to have received a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card for lifting a few lines from a book, a speech or some writing here or there; none other than the current president himself has been accused of purloining words — in his case from former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, among others.
On October 15, 2006, in a campaign speech, Patrick spoke, “All I have to offer is words — just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words – just words! ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words! ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ Just words! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words!”
Compare this to an Obama campaign speech on February 16, 2008: “Don’t tell me words don’t matter! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words! ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words — just speeches!”
That Obama and Patrick were well-acquainted with each other was a convenient excuse for the former Illinois senator’s staff, which used the friendship to explain away the obvious duplication.
“They’re friends who share similar views and talk and trade good lines all the time,” an Obama spokesperson crowed. Shortly thereafter, the Patrick camp corroborated Obama’s staff’s story, no doubt for the goodwill of their mutual political party.
Patrick wasn’t the only politician the current president was accused of appropriating from. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign charged the then-senator with stealing bits (including the “just words” phrase) from her speeches, perhaps unaware that Internet-savvy voters might see that she too may have cribbed from ex-Governor Patrick.
But Clinton herself is no stranger to plagiarism. As the 2008 Democrat primary race wound down and turned nasty, the Obama camp complained that Clinton had stolen some of former vice presidential candidate John Edwards’ lines.
The most memorable one being about how without serious change, “we’re going to be the first generation of Americans not to pass on a better life to our children” (a line that Clinton might be too afraid to recite today, given the state of the economy and her support of free trade pacts like NAFTA).
There was also another line — “if video stores can keep track of their tapes and DVDs, surely we can keep track of people here on visas, many of whom overstay them and become illegal immigrants” — that Edwards had previously used, substituting “Blockbuster” for “video stores.”
In the 2016 primary season, Clinton stole words directly from her rival Bernie Sanders, who pointed out that the former First Lady spoke his line, “Wall Street can never be allowed to threaten Main Street again. No bank can be too big to fail, no executive too powerful to jail” word-for-word on multiple occasions.
Sanders hammered on the point on NBC News’ Meet the Press, saying “We’re looking into the copyright issues here” — a joke response that despite its humor was intended as a serious warning to the establishment candidate. Sanders’ supporters were less kind to Clinton on social media, with hashtags castigating Clinton for out-and-out theft.
Finally, current Vice President Joe Biden is no stranger to sound bite thievery. Running for president in 1988, he waxed about “My ancestors who worked in the coal mines…,” amongst other references, quoting word-for-word from Neil Kinnock, the former leader of Britain’s Labor Party.
Biden is also on record for having committing plagiarism in law school. At least in Biden’s case, the press wasn’t shy about exposing the truth. After they did, an angry Biden chastised a reporter, “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do” — just one of several ill-advised quips that ultimately helped topple the former senator’s presidential bid that year.
And this list is far from complete. If we were to mention all the other instances of a few copied words in a speech here or there in political history, this article might be the length of an encyclopedia. Thanks to Google, we’re able to check every single comma and apostrophe today. Whether we care to — or whether it’s the most important issue of the day — is much more difficult to argue.
~American Liberty Report
