On Borrowers and Lenders: Obama's "Plagiarism" Explained

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 | 6:39 PM

By Sarah Scully

"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow." - Woodrow Wilson
After sifting through every granule of Barack Obama's being, his detractors were finally able to put together a pointed assault. With the strategy of attacking an enemy's strength rather than a weakness (a method made popular by Karl Rove), the Clinton campaign accused Barack Obama of plagiarizing parts of his crowd-pleasing orations, most notably from Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick's 2006 campaign. Patrick did not hesitate to defend his friend against the charges. Agree or disagree, this was a risky tactic for any politician as none of them rely solely on their own wits and just about all of them have repeated each other and borrowed from famous speeches in history. There are legitimate points in both the criticism and the counter. Campaigns these days are overly test-marketed and everything is researched right down to the color the candidate should wear and the intonation of their voice. (This is a topic we will be covering on-air in the coming months). Consultants seem to play an increasingly important role with every new election and Obama and Patrick have shared one of the more influential ones in David Axelrod so it should not be surprising that the same effective rhetoric has been used again.

The issue may have tarnished the media darling a bit but clearly not enough to make the attack worthwhile. Obama prevailed yet again with a significant victory in Wisconsin (and in home state of Hawaii as well) while Clinton may have come off looking desperate and mean.

Now that the can of worms has been opened, I have a feeling we're going to be seeing more "gotcha plagiarizing" videos of not just Obama but all of the other candidates too.