"Clinton Lies About Plagiarism Attack," and "plagiarizes" John Kerry

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Tue Feb-19-08 08:09 PM
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"Clinton Lies About Plagiarism Attack," and "plagiarizes" John Kerry

Edited on Tue Feb-19-08 08:11 PM by ProSense

Opinion

Clinton Lies About Plagiarism Attack

1 hour, 36 minutes ago

The Nation -- Hillary Clinton flatly denied that her campaign was attacking Barack Obama for using the words of another politician, telling reporters on Tuesday that her campaign had not made the charge. The Chicago Tribune reported her remarks from an interview with KITV in Honolulu on Tuesday:

"Look, it's not us making this charge. It's the media. You know, the media is finally examining my opponent which I think is important because we're trying to pick a president, someone for the toughest job in the world <...> So, I think the media is going to be putting forth whatever facts and information it has for voters to assess on their own."

Obama Campaign spokseman Bill Burton shot back on Tuesday evening. "Senator Clinton knows full well that her campaign held a conference call with reporters to fan these flames and the fact that she suggested her campaign had nothing to do with it is exactly the kind of evasive tactic voters are rejecting," he said in a statement.

Clinton's claim is demonstrably false. Her campaign has aggressively and openly pushed the plagiarism attack, including a national conference call by senior campaign aides on Monday. Her aides also circulated a YouTube clip comparing footage of Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick.

Initially, Clinton operatives apparently did attempt to conceal their involvement. The first New York Times article about the clip reported:

The similarities from a passage of Mr. Obama's speech on Saturday and in remarks that Mr. Patrick delivered on Oct. 15, 2006, were highlighted by a rival campaign that did not want to be identified. Clips of both speeches are archived on the Web site YouTube.com.

Yet by Monday morning, Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson and Rep. Jim McGovern openly made the plagiarism attack on the conference call, while the campaign openly distributed the YouTube clip without requesting to only be identified as a "rival campaign." The story has now dominated campaign coverage for two days, so Hillary Clinton is obviously aware that her campaign is making the charge.

The Clinton Campaign's attack on Obama's use of the line "just words" was widely panned as a baseless and desperate ploy. Her cover-up might go over even worse.

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October 15, 2007, 5:48 pm

Clinton Evokes Kerry, Quotes Roosevelt

By Patrick Healy

Purposely or not, Hillary Rodham Clinton evokes memories of the 2004 presidential nominee, John Kerry, from time to time.

A centerpiece of her health care plan was allowing Americans to buy into the federal insurance program that is available for members of Congress. Mr. Kerry proposed the same thing in 2004. “If it’s good enough for members of Congress, it’s good enough for all Americans,” Mr. Kerry liked to say; Mrs. Clinton has made the same point over and over the last few weeks.

Mrs. Clinton has talked at length about rebuilding global alliances; Mr. Kerry made the same pitch. They both talked about “rebuilding” a middle class economy, and they both used the phrase “war on science” to describe the Bush administration’s approach to scientific research.

And this afternoon, speaking at a luncheon to hundreds of women in midtown Manhattan, Mrs. Clinton even dusted off one of Mr. Kerry’s slogans. In May 2004, Mr. Kerry — who seemed to have a new catch phrase every month — settled on one that he repeated through the summer months, and one that drew more applause than many of his others.

“Let America be America again,” Mr. Kerry would say. It was the title and the first line of a 1938 poem by Langston Hughes, a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Toward the end of Mrs. Clinton’s remarks, she spoke about protecting children and giving the underprivileged a better life, and then looked ahead and said, “We have a lot of work to do.”

“We can let America be America once more, as Langston Hughes said,” Mrs. Clinton added.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kerry are friendly and they respect each other, their aides said, and they have worked together during the campaign to pressure the Pentagon to supply more details about war planning in Iraq. That said, Clinton campaign advisers are sometimes brutally critical of the Kerry 2004 campaign, particularly its delayed and wobbly effort to fight back against the so-called Swift Boat attacks on Mr. Kerry’s war record.

Clinton advisers say they were not mining the Kerry playbook for tips or rhetoric; rather, they say, Mr. Kerry had some good, mainstream Democratic ideas (like on the congressional health plan) that fit into Mrs. Clinton’s agenda. And a good line from an adopted New Yorker like Mr. Hughes is free to all.

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Video: http://www.oliverwillis.com/archives/2008/02/18/clintons-plagiarism-charge-fal">Clinton Caught Copying Obama (and Edwards) Too

Edited to put word "plagiarizes" in quotes.

"Clinton Lies About Plagiarism Attack," and "plagiarizes" John Kerry

Clinton Lies About Plagiarism Attack

Clinton Evokes Kerry, Quotes Roosevelt

The 'Hard Work' Issue Isn't Taking a Holiday

On national TV, Patrick calls plagiarism charge against Obama 'extravagant'