He’s Not Jesus?
By It’s nonsense, but I respect it.
What I mean by this is that it’s a very smart move by the Clinton campaign, yet it doesn’t involve crediting sham elections or otherwise gutting the electoral system. The plagiarism accusation is precisely the kind of faux-authentic nonsense that the media loves; they prize authenticity tropes, and they prize depriving Democrats of authenticity even more. They launched it just before a primary that they’re trailing in but that they could win with some luck, with masterful timing that allowed just enough time for the networks to play and replay Patrick and Obama speeches, but not enough for saner heads to prevail. I don’t even really blame Clinton for the speciousness of the attack; if Clinton hadn’t launched it, then certainly McCain would have, and the press might have liked it even more coming from the Straight Talk Express.
In short, it’s precisely the kind of cutthroat politics that Clinton is supposed to be good at, but that she hasn’t displayed thus far this electoral cycle. Obama is in the right and should push back on this, but as far as I’m concerned it falls within what some commenters here have described as rough politics. At the same time, it’s simply bizarre to see arguments like this. After admitting that the plagiarism charge is bogus, and consequently that the Clinton campaign is really just making stuff up, Wendy argues:
The problem with the Obama “borrowing” (let us call it) is that it undermines the uniqueness and specialness of his message. I’ve been wondering why Obama has been underwhelming me, and now I realize that it’s because I’m from Massachusetts and we did this all in 2006! Same unity shtick, same rhetorical mastery, same promises of change. Take a look at Massachusetts right now. It’s a nice state, but it’s hardly a brave new world of politics.
Right…. this is echoed in places like TalkLeft, MyDD, etc.; the argument comes down to “don’t you see that Obama isn’t a messiah, but rather just a politician?!!?!!11?!!!” As such, it’s an exercise in the burning of straw men; Obama supporters actually do understand that Obama is a politician, they simply think that he’s a better politician than Hillary Clinton. The merits of that position can be argued back and forth, but they actually need to be argued.