National Ledger - Barack Obama Plagiarism Charges: Clinton Campaign Accuses Speech Rip Off

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By Jim Roberts Feb 18, 2008

The Hillary Clinton campaign has accused Barack Obama of plagiarism. The charges come right after a weekend where Bill Clinton was back on the campaign trail wagging his finger, screaming at hecklers and being accused of striking a man that was hassling Bubba during a speech. Are the Clintons desperate or is this a legitimate charge?

Barack Obama Plagiarism Charges: Clinton Campaign Accuses Speech Rip Off

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is the man that Obama is accused of plagiarizing and the men are friends. The words are nearly identical and now Barack says he should have attributed them to the governor. Hillary Clinton has been slipping in recent polls and is being bested by Obama on the cmapign trail.

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So the former First lady has decided to attack Obama as nothing more than a speechmaker that delivers nothing more than words. That led barrack to use this line: "Don’t tell me words don’t matter! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words! [Applause.] ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words — just speeches!"

In a conference call this morning with reporters, Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe attributed the issue about the similarities to Clinton's campaign "grasping at straws." He said Obama and Patrick are friends who "share thoughts on ideas and language." However the words are very close. Is it a really big deal, and will it hurt Obama? Obama apparently ad-libbed the remark, which was not in his text.

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The Massachusetts governor defended him and said in a statement: “Sen. Obama and I are longtime friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language.

The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Sen. Clinton, I applaud him [for] responding in just the way he did.”

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