Obama Caught Plagiarizing 2006 Speech?
Big Head DC has discovered alarming similarities between a speech made by Sen. Barack Obama on February 16 while campaigning for president in Wisconsin and an October 2006 speech made by Deval Patrick, the current Democratic governor of Massachusetts. The coincidences would seem to indicate that Obama copied several lines and linguistic speech patterns from Patrick’s “Just Words” speech for Obama’s own “Words Matter” speech. Indeed, words do matter. And they matter even more when they are one’s own words.
The two speeches can be compared, in all their eerie detail, via YouTube.
Plagiarizing a speech during a presidential campaign was enough to end Sen. Joe Biden’s first bid for the presidency. From Wikipedia:
In 1987, Joe Biden ran as a Democratic presidential candidate. When the campaign began, he was considered a frontrunner because of his moderate image. However, the campaign ended when he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party. Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one where he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by Kinnock, with only minor modifications.
Deval Patrick’s 2006 “Just Words” speech (October 15, 2006):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaOkxbM9dY
And Barack Obama’s “Words Matter” speech (February 16, 2008):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgMcht-EW6I
EDIT - Perez Hilton has picked up the story:
The funny thing? People act like this is nothing… the same as the “OMG! His middle name is Hussein!!” thing. It’s not. There is a huge difference between an e-mail of stupid rumors, and a candidate plagiarizing a speech. Here’s a comment from his blog:
Honestly Perez, if you don’t cut this Obama bashing out, I might seriously boycott your site, which I visit multiple times a day. It’s one thing to express your love for Hillary, but it’s another to post malicious things, like the ridiculous Che photograph or this nonsense. Next thing you know, you’ll be making a big deal out of Obama’s middle name, just like the rest of the sheep in our country who believe every rumor going around.
I mean, really people… grow up and understand something before you attack it. I swear, if Obama ran over some people in his car a lot of you would be all “Well, you see, now you’re just bashing him again!! Those people probably dived in front of his car and he most likely swerved to avoid them all!” Ugh.
EDIT 2 - CNN is now reporting on this story, with a bonus twist… you see, it seems Obama’s group says first of all, it’s okay he “borrowed” the speech, they’re friends, it’s all good, man:
“Senator Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language,” Patrick said in the statement. “The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Senator Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did.”
“They often riff off one another. They share a world view,” Axelrod told the Times about Obama and Patrick. “Both of them are effective speakers whose words tend to get requoted and arguments tend to be embraced widely.”
They share a world view! Ohhh… that’s okay then! If that isn’t enough of a defense, they say Hillary has been stealing from him! That’s right! See:
The Obama camp also said Clinton had a pattern of borrowing some of the Illinois senator’s signature phrases, including “Yes, We Can” and “Fired Up, Ready to Go.”
They also circulated a YouTube video and list of these alleged instances to reporters still listening to Wolfson.
“…We have seen thousands and thousands of Iowans over the last week and we are fired up and we are ready to go because we know America is ready for change and the process starts right here in Iowa,” says Clinton in the pre-Iowa caucuses clip circulated by the Obama campaign Monday.
It’s official, the following phrases, “Yes, We Can” and “Fired Up, Ready to Go” officially belong to Barack Obama. Please do not use them. If you want to respond that you and a group of people could do something, please say “Surely, that is something we could accomplish!” If you wish to say that you are prepared to do something, try saying “We are excited and feel we could get started now!” Thank you for your patience. 
I’m honestly thinking this will be the next thing we see:
CNN is reporting allegations made by the Barack Obama camp that Hillary Clinton has plagiarized Obama on multiple occasions.
“One night at a rally, Clinton said she couldn’t wait to ‘get home and change out of these shoes‘. This is blatantly ripping off Obama’s Change speeches,” said one Obama supporter.
CNN will have updates as they become available.
Seriously people.
