February
18 Rhetoric. Repeat. Respond.

That, and other news, in today's President's Day Political Panorama.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is charging Barack Obama with "plagiarism" for a speech he gave on Saturday that they say was a bit too similar to one given by Obama-backer and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. The speech was in reaction to charges that Obama's campaign was just empty rhetoric. Obama said, "Don't tell me words don't matter! ‘I have a dream' -- just words? '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?"

Obama's campaign, however, says that Obama and Patrick are "friends who share similar views and talk and trade good lines all the time."  The Boston Globe last year noted that the two share lines --- in fact the same lines that the Clinton campaign identified on their conference call this morning --- but not much was made of it back then.

Is it plagiarism?  The Random House dictionary defines it "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." So technically, it is not, as Obama's use of Patrick's phrasing was not "unauthorized," even if he did not credit Patrick. Asked whether he should have given a nod to Patrick in his speech, Obama said today, "I'm sure I should have." "I really don't think this is too big of a deal," he said, according to the Politico.

But it is an attack on Obama's chief strength, and in that regard it can distract the campaign from  other issues on the eve of the Wisconsin primary, which is clearly what the Clinton campaign was aiming for. Moreover, they have the gift of YouTube, where users can compare for themselves. We'll see tomorrow whether it worked.

Obama's camp, meanwhile,  immediately  dispatched instances of Clinton using some of his lines and phrasing, including the signature "Fired up and ready to go!"

Shades of 1987: I couldn't help but think back to 1987, when Joe Biden looked on his way to becoming the Democratic front-runner before claims surfaced that he lifted a speech from British Labor Party leader Neal Kinnock.  Biden had credited Kinnock in previous speeches, but not the one that was videotaped. Biden then dropped out of the race. As it turned out, Michael Dukakis' campaign manager John Sasso had secretly distributed this piece of opposition research to reporters, and when Dukakis found out, he fired Sasso.

So how things have changed --- No more secret droppings of opposition research to political reporters. The campaigns are proudly doing it out in the open, on the record, via conference calls and press releases.

Pullout Fallout: At least online, there's anger at Steven Spielberg in China over his decision to pull out of the Beijing Olympics.

Clinton Coverage: Newsweek's Evan Thomas tries to figure out what is at the root of the Clintons' tensions with the media. He writes, "Obama appeals to the young millennial-generation reporters who fill the seats on press planes, just as Bill Clinton struck a chord with baby boomers 16 years ago. Her campaign has arguably alienated reporters by stonewalling them at times, but the relationship between the press and the Clintons is complicated—more in the nature of a bad marriage than a cold war."