Embarrassed Merkel admits plagiarising Reagan

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Embarrassed Merkel admits plagiarising Reagan
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 07 September 2005

Angela Merkel's bid to become Germany's first woman leader was dealt an embarrassing blow yesterday after her party was forced to admit that she virtually copied a speech given by the late Ronald Reagan during her recent TV duel with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

A spokesman for Germany's opposition conservatives conceded that Mrs Merkel was " certainly inspired" by Mr Reagan's words, spoken during his 1980 election campaign, when she delivered her closing address to more than 21 million viewers during last Sunday night's televised election debate.

Excerpts from the two speeches were published on Germany's Spiegel-Online website yesterday. They showed that both put almost exactly the same rhetorical questions to voters - albeit 25 years apart.

In 1980 Mr Reagan asked Americans facing a choice between himself and President Jimmy Carter: "Are you doing better than you were four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment than there was four years ago? If you answer yes to all these questions, I think it is obvious who you will vote for."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article310803.ece

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