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Obama Campaign On Defensive, Points Plagiarism to Clinton
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ShareFebruary 18, 2008 12:41 PM
ABC News' Sunlen Miller and Teddy Davis Reports: Senator Barack Obama said during a press conference in Niles, Ohio that he probably should have given credit to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick when he used his words at a speech on Saturday night in Wisconsin, as first reported by ABC News' Jake Tapper.
Obama pushed back against questions about whether he has ever plagiarized before. Obama said he usually gives credit when quoting people or using ideas, but he insisted that he is friends with Patrick.
"I've written two books, wrote most of my speeches, so I'm putting aside the question that you just raised whether my words are my own, I think that would be carrying it too far," Obama said. "Deval and I do trade ideas all the time, and he's occasionally used lines of mine and I at a Jefferson Jackson dinner in Wisconsin used some words of his.”
When asked if he should have credited Patrick, Obama admitted he should have: “I was on the stump. He suggested we use these lines. I thought they were good lines. I’m sure I should have. Didn’t this time.”
But the Illinois senator then turned his focus on Sen. Hillary Clinton, suggesting the New York senator uses his words without his approval. "Senator Clinton has used mine as well," Obama said, citing "fired up and ready to go," as examples.
The Clinton campaign today held a conference call with reporters to highlight charges that Obama's speech this weekend had a striking similarity to a speech given by Gov. Deval Patrick, D-MA in 2006.
"The power of his rhetoric has been much discussed," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said today, referring to Obama. "So when we learned that he has taken an important section of a speech from another elected official, it raises questions about the premise of his candidacy."
"It makes those words much less inspiring; less authentic and more political," he added.
The Clinton campaign circulated a video of the similar Patrick and Obama speeches Monday.
Patrick, who supports Obama for president, has defended the Illinois Democrat for using his refrain without attribution. But Clinton's spokesman argued that regardless of how Patrick feels, harm was done to Obama's audience, and he compared it to an author who plagiarizes the work of another.
"I think it's fine that Deval Patrick said that," added Wolfson. "What I'm concerned about is that the public has an expectation that the words are his own unless he credited them to someone else."
The Clinton camp believes that Obama' s lifting of rhetoric without attribution is especially damaging to the Illinois Democrat because his speeches have played an important role in his rise from state senator three years ago to Democratic presidential frontrunner.
"When you are running on your rhetoric and the power of your oratory," Wolfson said, "I think it undermines a central" element "of his candidacy."
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe held a conference call with reporters today that was meant to be dedicated to tomorrow’s primary in Wisconsin, but instead focused on the controversy and little else.
In Saturday’s speech at the Wisconsin Jefferson Jackson dinner Obama shot back at his critics’ charges that his campaign is about words, not action.
“Don't tell me words don't matter! ‘I have a dream’, just words?" he said. "‘We hold these truths to be self evident that all me are created equal’ - just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself?’ - just words? Just speeches?”
Plouffe tried to explain away the similarities in those remarks to the 2006 Deval Patrick speech by pointing out that the Governor and Obama are friends, and they often share thoughts and words in speeches.
Plouffe then tried to turn the argument to Obama’s opponent. He argued that Clinton is not in a position to be outraged about plagiarism. This is a “curious charge coming from Senator Clinton when she has actually repeatedly throughout the campaign used the language Senator Obama has used.”
Plouffe charged several instances when he says “Senator Obama’s language has been copied by the Clinton campaign.”
When reporters asked for specific examples, Plouffe said they would be provided.
Obama campaign national press secretary Bill Burton soon sent reporters an email with Clinton quotes that he argued were copied from Obama.
Those phrases include: “Fired up and ready to Go”, “Bring our country together,” “Yes we can,” “We’ve got to turn the page on George Bush and Dick Cheney,” and “Turn the Page.”
With reporting by ABC News' Jake Tapper.
February 18, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (874)
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A question for Obama supporters is: do you feel inspired or maybe duped by a politican? This is one of the most important reasons people support him and now perhaps that is not what it seems.
Posted by: Jim | Feb 18, 2008 1:35:28 PM
SHAEFUL TO STEAL OBAMA'S WORDS. HE IS THE REAL CANDIDATE TO WIN NOMINATION AND GENERAL ELECTION. MC CAIN CAN'T STAND HIM AT ALL. GO BARACK OBAMA '08 .
Posted by: I.A.T Smith | Feb 18, 2008 1:36:11 PM
Obama is such a con artist. He has stolen Deval Patrick entire speech and Patrick stole it from JFK and MLK. I am sick of people not coming up with their own ideas.
Posted by: C DEPP | Feb 18, 2008 1:41:47 PM
For my family, it is Obama. We would never vote for liar Hillary or war monger McCain. It is either Obama or a third party for certain for us.
Posted by: rockychance | Feb 18, 2008 1:43:43 PM
When what you are selling is thoughts and words and they are "regifted" from another campaign without giving credit to the original thinker then you are a hoax. He has raised a lot of money. He has a huge staff. This was not just another stop on the campaign trail, this was an important dinner appearance. This should have been enough to inspire original thinking ... I am absolutely stunned that he thought he could walk through it.
Posted by: beebopareebop | Feb 18, 2008 1:45:11 PM
Obama will get the nomination or at least five million of his supporters will not vote for a totally dishonest Clinton.
Posted by: rockychance | Feb 18, 2008 1:46:16 PM
I think there is a big difference between using a cookie-cutter approach of hope and rhetoric, as Obama seems to be doing, and Clinton using a time-worn phrase like fired up and ready to go...everyone says that...the question for the Obama campaign is whether or not Obama's approach is organic to him or if it is just some "marketing" gadget that Axelrod has used to help both Patrick and Obama?
Posted by: Karen Gerdes | Feb 18, 2008 1:46:40 PM
If you are a former Obama supporter, don't feel too bad. Biden was knocked off his pedestal a few years back for similar behavior, and yet he was able to rise from the ashes and run for President a second time. Maybe Obama will also do as well as Biden the second time out. (ROFL)
Posted by: WestCoastMessenger | Feb 18, 2008 1:47:36 PM
For a candidate who is not running on policies but on speeches this is serious business. For all the college students who are supporting him they should check their school's policy on plagiarism. Are you starting to see a pattern of deceit with him?
Posted by: larry | Feb 18, 2008 1:48:02 PM
Clutching at straws. Clutching at straws.
Posted by: hawkrew | Feb 18, 2008 1:48:30 PM
Obama is a smarmy idea thief....the recent momentum thickens and slows.....soon to be a coronary thrombosis. Liars, thieves, and con men...just like the Kennedy supporters.
Posted by: willy | Feb 18, 2008 1:50:22 PM
The difference is those famous quotes they both used had an actual powerful meaning behind them. For instance if "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" was in reference to dealing with Healthcare in America, afraid of how to pay for it etc... Then no one would notice. But when a Nation unjustly attacked needs to send its young men into service to defend herself, the words are indeed powerful. So much like the platitudes and rhetoric of these candidates there just is no substance.
Posted by: Dennis | Feb 18, 2008 1:50:26 PM
sweet talking guy, sweet talking guy, he's a sweet talking, sweet talking, sweet talking, sweet talking guy - why do I love him like I do? The Chiffons
guess now I know why
Posted by: american2 | Feb 18, 2008 1:50:34 PM
I would say he looks like "a wolf in sheeps clothing" but I'm afraid it's already taken.
Posted by: jim | Feb 18, 2008 1:52:04 PM
He just can't answer a question can he. It's always being thrown back at his opponent. Is this grasping at straws? No, it's reality the guy is a phony.
Posted by: jeff | Feb 18, 2008 1:55:19 PM
Are you kidding me? Obama has copywritten the phrases "fired up" and "Turn the page"? I hate to rain again on his "originality" but I believe these might have been spoken prior to his candidacy - in fact one is an old Seger song. And every election year there is a "Candidate of Change". I keep waiting for him to say something substantive that couldn't immediately be printed on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt, but as time goes on, I'm thinking that's not gonna happen. I want to like him, I really do - but damn! Give me something, man!
Posted by: Paula | Feb 18, 2008 1:55:21 PM
Come on...we really need to stick at the task at hand folks. Forget the one-liners. Let's talk about health care, people who are losing their homes, the problem in our schools. Lets ask a very important question? Are they going to continue to build a 700 million dollar embassy in Iraq??
Posted by: Karen | Feb 18, 2008 1:55:59 PM
The phrase "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" was said by F.D.Roosevelt and if memory serves me, Winston Churchill during WW II.
Posted by: GrannyB | Feb 18, 2008 1:56:07 PM
Are you feeling the love Wisconsin?
Posted by: jim | Feb 18, 2008 1:57:02 PM
Just illustrates how pathetic the Obama camp is. He can not even right his own speeches. I wonder if he is elected who's Inauguration speech will he use? He wants to say that Clinton uses his words-yet another illustration of his stupidity. They all use phrases like that, not ENTIRE SPEECHES! It's time this country realizes he is not cut out for this job!
Posted by: Wells | Feb 18, 2008 1:57:12 PM
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