Words Matter: Does Plagiarism?

Posted on February 18, 2008

In 1988 Joe Biden's run for the presidency was obliterated when he was found to have lifted words from a British politician's speech. Now Barack Obama has done the same thing. Here's a side by side video showing Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick's "Just Words" speech in 2006 and a recent speech by Barack Obama using the exact same words. Obama never attributed the speech to Governor Patrick.

Obama's entire campaign is premised on the fact that it's not "politics as usual" or the "tired politics of the past." Apparently, it's based on the plagiarism of past speeches.