One episode, well, it's an issue, but one that can probably be got over. Two?
Ambinder, continuing the best election coverage around, quite possibly, notes that there are more non-Obama Obama words.
This is serious s--t. When I remarked that the unevenness in Obama's speeches, that AS remarked in his Atlantic cover, even, ought to be addressed as possibly an important tell, I never thought they might get "fixed" by pulling in content from other places.
All the doubts about Obama may come rushing in.
SHELBY STEELE: My gut feeling is that he's going to have a difficulty-- a difficult time doing that [winning the nomination]. The reason I think that we don't yet know him. We don't yet quite know. What his deep abiding convictions are. And he seems to have, you know, almost in a sense kept them concealed. And a part of the I think infatuation with Obama is because he's something of an invisible man. He's a kind of a projection screen. And you sort of see more your — the better side of yourself when you look at Obama than you see actually Barack Obama.
Why the Google Generation booed - it's widespread
From BBC:
"They are post-modern, eclectic, Google-generationists, Wikipediasts, who don't necessarily recognise the concepts of authorships/ownerships."
Research indicates that plagiarism - whether done as deliberate cheating or not - is widespread in UK universities.
Not to nitpick, but some of the Obamites just don't quite "get it", it seems, or are trying to play it down.
It's one thing to adopt the viewpoint of another person, as Hillary seemingly does below (Edwards and Obama copied her from the first debate when she spoke about the need to be unified to fight the healthcare fight, rather than argue details of this plan or that plan, too).
It's quite different to use the actual words and passages from another speaker or recycle anecdotes as authentically your own, especially when you are holding yourself out as the inspirational speaker of a generation (and that's not an overstatement, if you listen to Caroline Kennedy's endorsement of Obama, in which she basically says just that).
Everyone is influenced by their environment. What is truly original is limited. But even singers who cover other artists songs try to re-invigorate them in ways that make them their own, not repeat them rote.
