Imitation the sincerest form of flattery: Obama "borrows" words from Edwards, Clinton

[wyldwolf]

It's the first time Obama has delivered his "Taking Back Our Government" policy speech, but the themes will sound familiar to anyone watching the New Hampshire primary closely. In Goffstown in April, Sen. Hillary Clinton pledged nearly identical reforms and raised nearly identical complaints, sometimes using the same words.

John Edwards proposed similar reforms in 2004.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/REPOSITORY/706230310/1043/NEWS01

Obama is looking better and better everyday as Veep for Clinton or Edwards.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Newsflash- they all 'borrow' or have similar policy proposals as each other. duh!

[wyldwolf]

2. and the same words? I don't recall that happening... except for Biden in the 80s

[journalist3072]

3. Right! The Obama apologists are shameless. They will make any excuse for him. eom

[NYCGirl]

4. Maybe they share some words, but Obama's plan is much stronger than Clinton's:

Obama's plan differed from Clinton's on some specific points.

In her speech, Clinton did not say she would keep new employees from working on regulations and contracts related to their former employer. Obama would prohibit a new employee from doing so for two years. Clinton said she would prevent cabinet officials, a small group, from lobbying her administration. Obama would prevent all political employees - a much larger group - from lobbying the administration.

Clinton did not mention banning gifts from lobbyists; Obama would bar gifts from lobbyists and lobbying firms in any amount to any employee of the executive branch.

[papau]

5. interesting - thanks for the comparison in positions on this issue - I just

was happy to see folks on the same page (more or less - more Obama and less Clinton per your analysis) and did not worry about their using the same phrases.

Of course points do go to the first wordsmith that came up with the phrases - but that is not nearly as important as the fact they are both on the same page (more or less).

[NYCGirl]

6. Those are words from the article. I should have put the link there to make that

clearer.


:hi:

[Telly Savalas]

8. Gee whiz. I wonder why the OP didn't mention this part of the article.

[wyldwolf]

10. gee whiz, I didn't mention THIS part either:

Obama's campaign staff did not respond directly to observations that Obama hit the same themes in his speech yesterday that Clinton and Edwards have talked about before.

[karynnj]

17. Obama and Feingold are sponsoring an ethics bill

that were greatly improve ethics. Obama also was the one who added the rule that Senators could not accept bundled contributions from lobbyists in the recent ethics bill. In addition, Obama was one of a small number of Democrats who voted for the Demint amendment which incorportaed the Peolsi house bill. This amendment - which Hillary voted against - led to a stronger ethics bill.

[TeamJordan23]

7. Where are Hillary's earmarks? She loves to copy what Obama does. nt.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. What, is he now required to make up all new words

lest he be accused of improperly "borrowing" existing ones from Hillary, who personally owns them?

[draft_mario_cuomo]

18. Ask Biden

;)

[ripple]

11. Obama has been working on and speaking about ethics

and lobbying reform well before this campaign. It's quite possible that Edwards and Clinton adopted his rhetoric, rather than the other way around.

Either way, most of us probably call, say, an apple....well, an apple. I would imagine that several candidates use the same words and phrasing to describe the situation in Iraq, the health care crisis, the Katrina debacle, and a number of other issues.

I think the author was merely pointing out that Hillary and Edwards have already addressed ethics reform with NH voters and the candidates have similar proposals. I certainly don't think she was implying that Obama somehow plagiarized anything.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

19. The article says Edwards was talking about this when he ran last time

In order for the JE part of your post to be true Edwards would have had to copy a then-obscure state senator. ;)

[Mass]

12. Obama is looking better and better as president.

These reforms have nothing original. They are part of the Democratic playbook. Saying that a candidate borrowed them to another is totally ludicrous.

Now, if the issue is to know who I trust most when it comes to governemental reforms, my answer is easy: Obama who has the vote record and the Senate bill sponsoring to prove it.

[snowbear]

13. Rock on OBAMA !!!!!!!!!!!

Dude, you are awesome !!

[Ethelk2044]

14. His campaign people did the right thing because his speech

was not the same as Edwards and Clinton. Even the people noted the differences in Obama's speech. He gave specifics to his plan. Their plans did not go into specifics. That is the very reason why he is getting the support from the people.

[zulchzulu]

15. Talk about cherry-picking a phrase to bash a candidate...

Did he use the word "hope" or "change"? Are those words copyrighted by the Clinton Camp now?

:wtf:

[Ethelk2044]

21. Clinton People are just running scared. It shows when they try

to pick a word out of a sentence and criticize Obama.

[BeyondGeography]

16. He did forget to imitate the part where she happily accepts private jet travel

at the bargain basement price.

"Whatever I've done, I complied with Senate rules at the time. That's the way every senator operates."

Except Obama, since Jan.of 2006:

<WASHINGTON--From now on, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who this week became a Democratic spokesman for ethics reform, will be using his political war chest to pay the full costs of a flight taken on someone else's private plane, rather than pay the much cheaper price of a first-class ticket.>

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060121/ai_n16024675

[calteacherguy]

20. All the candidates do that. It's perfectly normal. nt