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Grand Theft Quoto

Obama channels Deval lifting liberally from MLK, FDR, DOI. NYT:  

CHICAGO — Senator Barack Obama adapted one of his signature arguments — that his oratory amounts to more than inspiring words — from speeches given by Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts during his 2006 campaign.

At a Democratic Party dinner Saturday in Wisconsin, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, responded to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has criticized him for delivering smooth speeches but says they do not amount to solutions to the nation’s problems, by ticking through a string of historic references.

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Mr. Obama said, to applause. “ ‘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?”

Mr. Patrick employed similar language during his 2006 governor’s race when his Republican rival, Kerry Healey, criticized him as offering lofty rhetoric over specifics. Mr. Patrick has endorsed Mr. Obama, and the two men are close friends.

“ ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ — just words? Just words?” Mr. Patrick said one month before his election. “ ‘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?”

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Patrick said that he and Mr. Obama first talked about the attacks from their respective rivals last summer, when Mrs. Clinton was raising questions about Mr. Obama’s experience, and that they discussed them again last week.

Both men had anticipated that Mr. Obama’s rhetorical strength would provide a point of criticism. Mr. Patrick said he told Mr. Obama that he should respond to the criticism, and he shared language from his campaign with Mr. Obama’s speechwriters.

Mr. Patrick said he did not believe Mr. Obama should give him credit.

“Who knows who I am? The point is more important than whose argument it is,” said Mr. Patrick, who telephoned The New York Times at the request of the Obama campaign. “It’s a transcendent argument.”

Sad commentary when the best you can do is rip off someone else’s clip job. Remember, you read it here first. If you want to know about Obama, watch Patrick. I was called a racist for suggesting that, by people who apparently hadn’t noticed they are joined at the hip. Only Patrick isn’t “Obama Lite” after all. I had it backwards. But those who want to know what an Obama presidency will look like may yet benefit from eyeballing Massachusetts, where some prominent Patrick voters have turned Hillward. No comment on their poor choice of refuges, but they were in a good position to notice limousine liberal Patrick’s pressing agenda: redecorate the Corner Office, buy a Cadillac and fire up the State Police air wing for purposes of personal conveyance. Appoint feel-good incompetents short on experience. Alienate and remain at odds with the Democratic Legislature of Massachusetts … nothing wrong with that per se … and actually manage to make them look like sober-minded conservatives.

Back to the matter at hand, it’s not an unimaginative ripoff. It’s a riff. It’s a shared worldview. It’s a wide embrace:

David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Mr. Obama who also advised Mr. Patrick, said Sunday that Mr. Obama adapted the words from Mr. Patrick. Mr. Axelrod said that he did not write the words for either candidate.

“They often riff off one another. They share a world view,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Both of them are effective speakers whose words tend to get requoted and arguments tend to be embraced widely.”

Poligazette’s got vid, and a couple of other words purloined from every two-bit political bounder who ever ran on hot air: “Hope” … “change!“

Topics: pols

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:08 pm on Monday, February 18, 2008

5 Responses to “Grand Theft Quoto”

1. Obama is a Plagiarist « Wayward Fundamentalist Christian Says:
   February 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

   [...] THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Jawa Report and UrbanGrounds, The Newshoggers, The Swamp, TownHall Blog, Jules Crittenden, Big Head DC, MSNBC and Hot Air, The Huffington Post, All Politics and Spin Cycle, Taylor Marsh and [...]

2. tanstaafl Says:
   February 18th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

   Besides the rhetorical flourishes (borrowed or otherwise)…

   .. the cadence of the voice in Barack Obama’s delivery is off putting.

   He has obviously done quite a bit of speechifying homework.

   Which is a form of hornswoggling.

3. PoliGazette » CopyCat Says:
   February 18th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

   [...] Change! [...]

4. Grizzly Groundswell » Obama is a Plagiarist Says:
   February 18th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

   [...] THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Jawa Report and UrbanGrounds, The Newshoggers, The Swamp, TownHall Blog, Jules Crittenden, Big Head DC, MSNBC and Hot Air, The Huffington Post, All Politics and Spin Cycle, Taylor Marsh and [...]

5. Robert Says:
   February 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

   Does this mean that there is somebody who is just as much of a gasbag as Hussein?

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