Barack Obama Plagiarism Scandal

When I first heard about this scandal, I dismissed it as minor.

Well, it might not be minor. In fact, I am starting to think we might have a real scandal on our hands here, and it's going to take a week or two to really blow up.

In case you missed it, here is the first issue:

1. The "Just Words" speech from Patrick.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aBcYXfbGnhA

and

http://youtube.com/watch?v=By2WxgeaTw4

OK, so Obama admits he was borrowing words from Patrick, and that Patrick is a friend. He doesn't explain why he didn't attribute the claim at the time.

In itself, a minor scandal that will blow over. However, due to what happened with Biden in 1988, what it meant was the press started to pour over his explanation, and all of Obama's prior speeches, and see if there is a pattern and practice of him plagiarizing speeches.

And if there is, THEN it becomes a real scandal as opposed to the minor blip it is right now.

And so what I thought would end there, now isn't. The press is doing that, and here is what they found in just the last 12 hours:

2) The timeline on Obama's explanation does not track.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/deval-patricks.html

“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," the Times' Jeff Zeleny wrote. "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.”

But Obama was quoted using Patrick's language before the Summer of 2007.

"'We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ Those are just words," Obama was quoted as saying in a March 19, 2007 New Republic story. " ‘I have a dream.’ Just words.”

So....the claim that Patrick an Obama "first" discussed this last Summer does not make sense.

3) Obama plagiarized Patrick another time, this time with the "chance on your own aspirations" line.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/deval-patricks.html

Patrick in June 2006, at the Massachusetts Democratic party convention: "I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

Obama one year later, as quoted in USA Today: "I am not asking anyone to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

4) Obama also may have plagiarized a line from Robin Williams in the movie "Man of the Year". The "We are not a nation of red states or of blue states; we are the United States of America." This one is a bit less of an issue for me, since it's kind of a generic line. However, when looking for a pattern and practice, it's an issue on some level.

See:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/01/the_audacity_of_obamas_speech.html

And this is just the first 12 hours. If this thing starts rolling, and plagiarized line after plagiarized line starts coming out, Obama has a real serious scandal on his hands. And it's made all the worse by it starting with the "Just Words" speech, and Obama banking his campaign on his public speaking ability. It all has a certain irony to it that the media will love like sharks smelling blood in the water.