Hillary cries plagiarism & Barack sez she has borrowed
words from him
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK in Washington and
MICHAEL SAUL in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Olson/Getty
Hillary Clinton's campaign
called it plagiarism and suggested Obama's alleged pattern
of 'lifting words' from others undermines his credibility.
Bowmer/AP
'I really don't think this is
too big of a deal,' Obama told reporters during a stop in
Ohio.
He copied him! She copied him! Waaaaaaaah!
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama honored Presidents' Day
with a schoolyard whinefest about who lifted someone else's
campaign rhetoric without proper credit.
While George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's faces grace
our coins, the ex-Presidents may not have appreciated the
penny-ante, two-bit argument the rival Democratic campaigns
waged Monday.
The brouhaha stems from a dinner speech Saturday night in
which Obama borrowed lines once used by Massachusetts Gov.
Deval Patrick, a top supporter, to combat criticism from
Clinton that he's a talker, not a doer.
"I really don't think this is too big of a deal," Obama
told reporters during a stop in Ohio.
Obama acknowledged he borrowed lines from Patrick, but he
said he did so at Patrick's suggestion. Obama, known for his
eloquent speeches, conceded he should have given the governor
credit for the lines.
"I'm sure I should have - didn't this time," Obama said.
In a conference call with reporters, the Clinton campaign
called it plagiarism and suggested Obama's alleged pattern of
"lifting words" from others undermines his credibility, and
his candidacy.
"If you're asking the public to judge you on your rhetoric
and your promises and you're breaking your promises and
lifting your rhetoric, there's not much else there," argued
Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director.
"His candidacy is fundamentally premised on the strength of
his rhetoric and the strength of his promises," Wolfson said.
"So when he is found lifting the rhetoric from another
politician, it calls into question the premise of the
candidacy."
In response to the plagiarism accusations, Obama said
Clinton "on occasion has used words of mine" - examples his
campaign quickly provided. But he stressed, while speaking at
a titanium plant in Ohio, that the skirmish is not the "kind
of stuff that workers here are concerned about."
Obama defended the authenticity of his message.
"It's fair to say that everything that we've been doing and
generating excitement and the interest that people have had in
the elections is based on the core belief in me that we need
change in America," he said. "And that's been heartfelt and
that's why I think it's been so effective."
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, described the
plagiarism charges as a red-herring distraction, with Clinton
aides desperately "grasping at straws to try and create some
momentum for their campaign."
tdefrank@nydailynews.com
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