Knowing how you rely on me to throw light on all the issues, large and small, of the presidential race, I'm not going to let you down. You'll be wanting guidance on the charge of plagiarism levelled by the Clinton campaign team against Barack Obama. These words, spoken by Obama in Milwaukee, were (so the charge goes) copied by him from Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts who'd said something similar:
Don't tell me words don't matter... 'I have a dream.' Just words? 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.' Just words? 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Just words? Just speeches?Concentrate, will you! The problem isn't that Obama said this in Milwaukee when Deval Patrick is Governor of Massachusetts. It's that he's saying someone else's words.
What's my take?
Part 1: Can you believe the Clinton team would try to make an issue of something like that? How desperate are they?
Part 2: Does the Obama campaign lack for mature advisers? All he had to do was acknowledge Patrick as the source - or, even, to re-express the thought differently, not an impossibly difficult task.
Part 3: This matters?!
As a friend pointed out to me recently: 'Stand, for a change' - it's not unlike 'Gentlemen lift the seat'. (Thanks: MS.)
