Clinton campaign does not accept Deval Patrick's explanation as valid [View All]

[madfloridian]

They apparently will continue to say that Obama is being a plagiarist. Howard Wolfson again.

From TPM

Wolfson and authenticity

Wolfson said the plagiarism charge still holds because listeners go in with the assumption that Obama's speeches are original, unless credit is given. "So I think it's fine that Deval Patrick said that," Wolfson said. "But what I'm concerned about is that the public has an expectation that Sen. Obama's words are his own."

Here is TPM's take on that remark:

Wolfson's concern for the public's fragile expectations would be quaint if it wasn't so transparently self-serving. Obviously, this isn't plagiarism.

But like the flip-flop line of attack Hillary is pressing on Obama's public financing pledge, the attack speaks to her campaign's effort to undermine the very thing that has been the centerpiece of Obama's candidacy: his authenticity.

Sure he gives better speeches than I do, the Hillary line goes, but the words aren't even his own. He may talk a good game about public financing, she asserts, but when push comes to shove his position is the same as mine.

The attacks are intended to bring down Obama's positives, to knock him off his pedestal. But it's hard to see how they raise Hillary's. Her argument, boiled down, is: "He's no better than me." (Or perhaps, less charitably, "He's just as bad as me.")

I would have this to say about it.....there are many aspects to authenticity. Switching positions on issues vital to voters could also be said to be lacking authenticity.

Hillary's different positions on Florida's delegates