The Daily Background

The idea that Obama somehow “plagiarized” a line from one of his co-chairs is absolutely absurd. Still, CNN asked him about Clinton’s allegations. You can see for yourself how the audience reacted:

Is this really how the Clinton campaign hopes to turn around the momentum and win this race? If so then they’re more tone deaf than previously thought. It’s obvious they’re trying to make him 2008’s Joe Biden of 1988. But this is just a desperate attack. Obama rightly pointed out that this campaign shouldn’t be about these types of silly, baseless attacks, they should be about what each candidate is going to do to help the country. And the audience responded positively. Clinton tried to pull a canned line (”Change you can xerox”) and the audience booed.

Also, because Clinton persists in attacking Obama over this absurd point, I feel compelled to quote this Politico article detailing how the Clinton campaign has been pushing this idiotic line of attack, and then lying about it:

Under fire for uncredited echoes of another candidate’s speeches, the Obama campaign sought Tuesday evening to turn the tables on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) by highlighting her clearly false claim that her campaign had not fueled the controversy.

Clinton, in remarks to the ABC affiliate in Honolulu that were reported by the Chicago Tribune, asserted: “Look, it’s not us making this charge. It’s the media.”

But on Monday, the Clinton campaign announced a conference call “to discuss a recent speech delivered by Sen. Obama” and included a YouTube link that showed Obama remarks side by side with similar comments by his friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

On the call, Howard Wolfson, the campaign’s communications director, said: “When an author plagiarizes from another author there is damage done to two different parties. One is to the person he plagiarized from. The other is to the reader.”

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mailed statement: “Senator Clinton knows full well that her campaign held a conference call with reporters to fan these flames and the fact that she suggested her campaign had nothing to do with it is exactly the kind of evasive tactic voters are rejecting.”

On Tuesday afternoon, a rival campaign began circulating another pair of videos Obama echoing Patrick, who at the time was running for Massachusetts governor.

You can bet your ass that “A rival campaign” was not Mike Gravel. Everybody knows that it’s the Clinton campaign. As Ben Smith wrote the other day:

I’m perplexed by the fact that the source of these videos is insisting, apparently, on being identified as a “rival campaign.” (C’mon, Ron Paul — just admit it!) And a bit confused as to why this — like, to be fair, many videos that “surface” against Hillary, McCain and others, most of them not this well edited — is posted to the newly created YouTube account of “chrisoh7,” rather than to that of an identifiable creator.

They’ve been promoting this story all week– they’ve been sending memos out to reporters, they edited the original YouTube clips, they’ve manufactured this entire thing. And they for some reason think they’re sneaky enough to get away with it without anybody noticing who’s doing it. Do they take us for fools?

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog