When journalists copy material and pass it off as their original reporting, well, they get into a lot of trouble.
Same for, say, doctoral students who write theses to earn their university degrees. No can do.
Politicians, too, can get themselves into trouble when the swipe others’ profound thoughts and present them as their own brilliant rhetoric. Isn’t that right, Vice President Joe Biden?
Now, do politicians’ spouses face the same scrutiny? Must they endure the ridicule that comes to journalists and pols?
Melania Trump delivered a speech last night at the Republican National Convention that some dialed-in watchers thought they’d heard before. Turns out a good bit of Trump’s comments originated from another well-known political spouse, one Michelle Obama.
Melania channeling Michelle? Who’d have thunk that?
This link contains some fascinating evidence of plagiarism. Check out the bold-faced type references in both women’s speeches.
Trump’s speech — I listened to most of it Monday night — contained a passage about growing up in Slovenia and mentioned the values imbued in her by her parents. Someone out here in TV Land remembered Obama making strikingly similar references when she spoke at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver.
There were other passages that seemed quite similar in character.
Vice President Biden ran for president a couple of times before getting the call to run with Sen. Barack Obama in 2008. The first time was in 1988. Then-Sen. Biden’s campaign flew into the ditch when it was revealed that he copied extended passages from an earlier speech delivered by Neil Kinnock, who was a British Labor Party leader.
News networks played the two men’s speeches side by side. The ridicule was loud and sustained. It’s interesting to me as well that much of what Biden lifted from Kinnock’s speech also had to do with personal history, upbringing and values.
Biden pulled out of the Democratic Party primary race and skulked back into the Senate cloakroom shadows … at least briefly.
Melania Trump has said she wrote the speech she delivered last night with “as little help” as possible.
Hmmm. Really?
Suffice to say she seems to have needed some help with this one — and now she’ll need help explaining what appears to be so painfully obvious.