Bush speechwriter accuses Obama of plagiarism in State of the Union

[alucard13mm]

A former speechwriter for President George W. Bush accused President Barack Obama of plagiarizing one of Bush's speeches for the Tuesday evening State of the Union address.
Marc Thiessen, who served as Bush's lead speechwriter for his 2007 State of the Union speech, told Megyn Kelly of Fox News, "Barack Obama has gone from blaming George W. Bush to plagiarizing George W. Bush."
Politco reports:
Thiessen then read phrases from the 2007 speech which focused on the theme "hope and opportunity." "It was eerily familiar. There were lines like 'Our job is to help Americans build a future of hope and opportunity, a future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy, a future of hope and opportunity requires that all citizens have affordable and available health care, extending opportunity and hope depends on a stable supply of energy,' all of that came from the 2007 State of the Union from George W. Bush," Thiessen said.
Poliico writes that none of Obama's lines "were directly lifted" from Bush's 2007 address, though in both speeches the presidents repeatedly used versions of the word "opportunity" and both concluded with stories about veterans who had been wounded in combat.
A transcript of Obama's speech is available here. Bush's 2007 speech can be read here.
This isn't the first time Obama has been accused of plagiarism in a State of the Union address. In 2011, Alvin Felzenberg, presidential scholar and former spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, wrote an op-ed for U.S. News and World Report stating the Obama's speech "contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince."
However, President Bush was not immune to similar accusations. In 2010, a Huffington Post reporter accused Bush of lifting passages of his memoir from the books of his advisers.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...143818874.html

[AuH20]

Crap peddlers complaining that their crap was taken without permission?

[otherone]

Crap peddlers complaining that their crap was taken without permission?

I was thinking "when is taking a $#@! plagiarizing"?

[acptulsa]

Well? What else will Bank of America, Chase, the Medical Industrial Complex and the Military Industrial Complex let them talk about? Was he supposed to make a State of the Union Speech about the weather, just to be different?

If you're hoping for a change in the rhetoric, work toward a change in the corporate censors. Until then, a Republican 'word from our sponsor' and a Democratic 'word from our sponsor' are bound to sound the same...

[Occam's Banana]

"Plagiarism" my ass. More like "recycling the same vacuous platitudes" and "peddling the same moldy nostrums" ...

Frankly, if I were Thiessen, I wouldn't want to draw attention to the fact that I had been responsible for previous regurgitations of such witless pablum.

[HOLLYWOOD]

If you listen to Obama's speech again, I'd say he plagiarized many from Ron Paul 2007-12

Thing is with Puppet Obama... when you are a repetitive-habitual liar... words are cheap and never credible.

[CaptUSA]

Wait a minute... Isn't he really plagiarizing his whole damned administration?!

Biggest education takeover? Check.
Biggest Health care takeover? Check.
Kill a bunch of brown people? Check.
Run up record debt? Check.

[Anti Federalist]

Blarg blarg Coke.

Blarg blarg Pepsi.

Blarg blarg Big Mac.

Blarg blarg Whopper.

You want fries with that, maggot?

$#@!ing nonsense.

[Carson]

If it happened to me I think I'd feel pretty good.

[rpfocus]

Doesn't look like plagiarism to me, but who cares. Neither party has anything of substance to offer. If only Ron was born 10 years later. He'll I'd vote for Ross Perot right now.

[Carson]

Doesn't look like plagiarism to me, but who cares. Neither party has anything of substance to offer. If only Ron was born 10 years later. He'll I'd vote for Ross Perot right now.

He is still the best person for the job.

Remember the part where he said he would reverse all of the executive orders the first day? What about allowing competition with the central bank?

It'll be decades before anyone comes close to having the experience he has.

He's never looked very old to me but it would be a pretty mean thing to do to the guy.

[Zippyjuan]

Wait- both speaches used the words "hope" and "opportunity"? and mentioned "the future"? Bush's speach writer invented those words?

Just like sports interviews, there are words you are almost required to use.

[Henry Rogue]

[SARCASM]That property was mine, he stole my intellectual bull sh!t.[/SARCASM]

[compromise]

Blarg blarg Coke.

Blarg blarg Pepsi.

Blarg blarg Big Mac.

Blarg blarg Whopper.

You want fries with that, maggot?

$#@!ing nonsense.

Pepsi is definitely better than Coke.

[enhanced_deficit]

Old habits die hard:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgfGTXaqoWQ







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updated 4:41 a.m. EST, Tue February 19, 2008

Obama, Clinton camps point to borrowed rhetoric

Story Highlights

• Phrase in Obama speech similar to that of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick
  
• Clinton: "If your whole candidacy is about words, then they should be your own"
  
• Obama downplays significance, says: "Clinton has used words of mine as well"

(CNN) -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each accused the other of borrowing portions of their presidential campaign speeches Monday.

The Clinton campaign accused Obama of borrowing from a close supporter, and the Illinois senator responded by saying his own words have been used by Clinton.

On a conference call with reporters, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said it was clear Obama had "lifted rhetoric" from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Late Monday, Clinton followed up with a swipe of her own.
"If your whole candidacy is about words, then they should be your own words," Clinton said in Madison, Wisconsin. "That's what I think."

Obama downplayed the significance of the accusation.
"I've written two books, wrote most of my speeches. So I think putting aside the question ... in terms of whether my words are my own, I think that would be carrying it too far," Obama said.
"Deval and I do trade ideas all the time, and you know he's occasionally used lines of mine," Obama said.

Obama said he also used some of Deval's words at a Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Wisconsin.
"I would add I've noticed on occasion Sen. Clinton has used words of mine as well," said Obama. "As I said before, I really don't think this is too big of a deal."
Obama campaign officials said Clinton had a pattern of borrowing from some of her rival's signature phrases, including "Yes, We Can" and "Fired Up, Ready to Go." They circulated a YouTube video and list of these alleged instances to reporters.
The Clinton campaign earlier pointed to similarities between the words of Obama and Patrick that have raised eyebrows and attracted traffic on YouTube.
A central passage in a speech Obama gave Saturday -

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/...ml?eref=rss_us

[devil21]

So they steal the same lies from each other election cycle after election cycle? I'm shocked!

(actually, the truth is that the small group of speech writers write the scripts for all the conventions)

[CPUd]

[enhanced_deficit]

Founding fathers will be very disappointed that Presidential candidates are lifting lines from others speeches.
If this is confirmed, Melania should regret this and apologize to Michelle "bring our girls back" Obama.




Related


Related

If this is confirmed as planned publicity stunt, Trumpster should apologize to Democrats.

[Occam's Banana]

Founding fathers will be very disappointed that Presidential candidates are lifting lines from others speeches.
If this is confirmed, Melania should regret this and apologize to Michelle "bring our girls back" Obama.

Why? The recycling of vacuous platitudes is par for course in politics. It always has been and always will be. I seriously doubt the "founding fathers" would be even mildly suprised (let alone "very disappointed") in any of this - except in the mythologizing imaginations of those who fancy that the "founding fathers" were some kind of especially virtuous paragons. (Hint: they were not.) In fact, I wouldn't be shocked to learn that Cicero himself had not been above boosting a well-crafted bit of jingoism from someone else, if he had thought it would serve his purpose.

But of course, obsessing over things like "plagiarism" is all part of the attention-diverting, circus-side-show farce that is American politics. After all, it's not like there are more important things to be concerned about than whether or not this or that power-lusting, double-talking, mealy-mouthed, $#@! mimicked something said by some other power-lusting, double-talking, mealy-mouthed $#@! ...

[timosman]

Old habits die hard: