During the debate, Dan Drezner suggested to me over IM that Hillary Clinton was plagiarizing Primary Colors. He backs it up on his own blog:
Hillary Clinton, February 21, 2008 debate with Barack Obama: "You know, lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox." Hillary Clinton, later on in the same debate: "You know, the hits I've taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country." Jack Stanton speech, in Primary Colors (New York: Random House, 1996), p. 162: "Y'know, I've taken some hits in this campaign. It hasn't been easy for me, or my family. It hasn't been fair, but it hasn't been anything compared to the hits a lot of you take every day."
Meanwhile, Chris Beam at Slate picks up on another instance:
Hillary, however, pivots in a way that evokes, of all things, her Diner Sob. Only this time, she sets herself up: “People often ask me, ‘How do you do it? How do you keep going?’ ” That’s the exact same question asked by Marianne Pernold Young at the Café Espresso in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on the eve of the primary. Clinton then goes into a colorful anecdote about a medical center filled with people injured in Iraq. She doesn’t exactly tear up, but it’s a deliberately emotional moment. (We see Chelsea looking teary afterwards.) At the very end, she borrows a line that John Edwards used toward the end of his campaign. "We're going to be fine," she said, referring to herself and Obama. (Edwards always said it about himself and Elizabeth.) "I just hope we can say the same thing about the American people."
Good grief, how I have come to despise anyone who runs for President. The unctuousness, the condescension, the conceit of "cares about people like me".....it is enough to cause dry heaves.
How many weeks until November?
Here's the Clinton spin -- She lifted a line from a book that lifted its character from Bill... that ain't plagiarism, it's just agreeing with her husband... which makes her a loyal wife, so we know she'll be loyal to her country.
LOL. That is something to laugh at.
the clinton quote is a far cry from plagarism. i could google search any number of lines from the debate and get such a quote of passing resemblance. yet another egregious attempt by progressive media to assassinate the clinton campaign. you people should be ashamed.
daniel adkins:
Progressive media? Care to back up that claim?
Obama's been beat up for a week over Clinton's plagiarism allegations, but she's guilty of worse: HYPOCRISY!
Bill Clinton 1992: "The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time."
Hillary Clinton Tonight: "You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country."
Edwards the December 13 debate:
"What's not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what's at stake is whether America is going to be fine."
Hillary Clinton Tonight:
"You know, whatever happens, we're going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people. And that's what this election should be about."
don't you wish that now you had or could now vote for the only "original" speaking candidate with all the origninal plans and ideas.......JOHN EDWARDS
It's really too bad that we now have to accept a lessor candidate with nothing NEW about them.
same old same old politics as usual i guess.........no change there....it's apparent that America doesn't really want change after all.
I'm having trouble figuring out where the things we're supposed to be shocked about begin and end above, but, no matter. I'm a little more concerned about minor issues like the Soviet-style of the whole debate with candidates and questioners on the same basic side of the issues, and with CNN not disclosing that one of their questioners is a foreign citizen. Minor things like that.
Oh for crying out loud.
Republicans talk about Dems having "Bush Derangement Syndrome," but it's nothing compared to "Clinton Derangement Syndrome." Really, this is what our political discourse is reduced to? Worry about "plagiarism" of a perfectly obvious line from Joe Klein's "anonymous" hit-piece book? Does Hillary Clinton have to have an army of copyright researchers go through every speech ever given by anyone, just to make sure she doesn't accidentally "plagiarize" what someone else already said?
And you, Megan, just perpetrated the meme while keeping your hands clean by merely pointing to Drezner. You're just passing it along. Slick.
Why not just go all the way, quote Drezner and just say "Heh, indeed."
I found it distressing that Senator Clinton would describe the scenes at a military hospital - of amputees who were struggling to gain entry into hospitals, once whole soldiers who had made the ultimate sacrifice for us - when she was part of the mad chorus that authorized to send them to Iraq. Yes, they fought bravely for their country when their country sent them to fight over there, but where was Senator Clinton's sympathy when they needed someone to fight for them here?
That explains it. Don't stay over there too long, Megan...Reynolds is already having an insidious effect on you.
Here are a few clips that show her own xeroxing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7Cs3QvT3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAYItnI-lPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuEDkqVvpkk
oh but wait - most of you who are chiming in; I really don't think you've seen the SIDE BY SIDE YOUTUBES? it's WORD FOR WORD - if this isn't plagiarism, then you all failed 4th grade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgctsioisJg
Liberalrob, this is only any sort of an issue because she's accused Obama--in that very debate--of similar "plagiarism". Obviously politicians recycle stock phrases all the time.
I love that post calling out the "progressive media." It's ironic that Hillary supporters are sounding more and more like Rush Limbaugh. The media isn't liberal, progressive, or conservative for that matter. It's capitalist. How else will these people earn a paycheck if they can't stir up meaningless drama in order to pique our emotions and keep us reading.
See for yourself if there's plagarism:
http://cyberhillbilly.blogspot.com/2008/02/xeroxed-clinton-hillary-channels.html
The biggest tragedy here is that Americans seem to think that any president creates jobs, that any president can "make change" (sounds like crappy sausage), and, worse, that this "change" will benefit everyone at every moment of life. . . . We get exactly what we ask for. Anyone available for a junket to Mars?
How is it "plagiarism" if the lines come from one of your best friends, and campaign co-chairs, who suggested to you that you use them? These lines were given to him by Deval Patrick, not stolen.
Is extemporaneous speech even subject to considerations of plagiarism? I realize with all the debate prep they do, it isn't all that extemporaneous, but it is assumed to be so.
If you respond to a question in a field where you are not an independent authority (ie, almost everything for almost everybody) you are going to reply with other peoples ideas, sometimes their exact words. You don't have reference materials at hand, so you can't necessarly attribute correctly.
As for the "How do you do it? How do you keep going?" reference, that is just pathetic. I googled ("How do you do it"+"How do you keep going"-clinton) and got 21,900+ results. You might as well accuse her of plagiarism for saying the word "the" without attribution.
Dear All,
I think that it is high time that we mere mortals stopped listening to politicians who are in the same category as dodgy car salespeople.
Once the votes have been cast, these same "caring" people treat the common folk with utter disdain. They wait for the next elections when the phrase books, bulletin board cliches list of adjectives, adverbs and nouns are rehashed into "bite size" pieces of con the people drivel.
It's the same all over the world left- middle- right= nothing matters anymore- no truth, decency- just a thick hide is required- like the dodgy car salespeople.
Maybe Duval Patrick and John Edwards should be running since everybody wants to use their words ...