Obama and Plagiarizing

On Saturday Obama gave a speech where he lifted rhetoric from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. This part is no secret, but the media's attack on Hillary for her campaign acknowledging this is fact is asinine. Obama has not passed any tangible legislation and has actually failed to do anything more than inspire America with his words. It is frustrating to read that so many people have bought into the hype of Obama's words, but when we will see his actions? When will Obama actualize his words?

In the New York Sun, Seth Gitell went after Hillary's campaign for bringing up Obama's lifting of Mr. Patrick's words. Gitell takes this as Hillary's desperation, but from day one Gitell has disliked Hillary and the chances of Gitell saying anything nice or even neutral about Hillary is as likely as hearing a complete sentence by President Bush. The highlighted sentence for the column was, "Hillary Clinton has a slim chance in this presidential race. But yesterday's trick will likely do more to hasten the end of her national career than sustain it." That is a mouthful.

There is nothing tired about stating that Obama lifted his words from another speaker. In college if you did that and did not acknowledge the source you failed the paper, sometimes the class, and in egregious plagiarism you were expelled. But instead of Mr. Gitell commenting on Obama's statements he would rather trash Hillary. It seems like a curious decision considering the incident should be about whether or not Obama lifted these words from Mr. Patrick.

It does not matter that Mr. Patrick and Mr. Obama are friends, what matters are the originality of Mr. Obama's words. If Hillary did not say anything then people would say she is spineless. But since Hillary did say something Hillary is "desperate."

If anything was revealed by Mr. Obama lifting the speech from Deval it is that Hillary is correct: Obama is all words and no actions. Obama is able to quote some of the memorable statements of American Presidents, but will he be able to pass important legislation like the civil rights act or ending slavery or making advances in federal funding for stem cell research. Obama, by improvising this part of his speech, demonstrated Hillary's point about his candidacy: he is all words. Whether they are borrowed or not, Obama has run a campaign based on promises and phrases, but lacking in content to back it up. Mr. Gitell has bought the bait, hook line and sinker. Whether or not it is plagiarism to lift Mr. Deval's words should be the issue not Hillary's response.