Filed under: Scandals, Scoops, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Deval Patrick, Obama plagiarising, Obama plagiarized, Obama copying speech, Obama plagiarizes, The Audacity of Plagiarism, Obama plagiarize, Neil Kinnock
Big Head DC has discovered alarming similarities between a speech made by Sen. Barack Obama on February 16 while campaigning for president in Wisconsin and an October 2006 speech made by Deval Patrick, the current Democratic governor of Massachusetts. The coincidences would seem to indicate that Obama copied several lines and linguistic speech patterns from Patrick’s “Just Words” speech for Obama’s own “Words Matter” speech. Indeed, words do matter. And they matter even more when they are one’s own words.
The two speeches can be compared, in all their eerie detail, via YouTube:
Deval Patrick’s 2006 “Just Words” speech (October 15, 2006):
And Barack Obama’s “Words Matter” speech (February 16, 2008):
Plagiarizing a speech during a presidential campaign was enough to end Sen. Joe Biden’s first bid for the presidency. From Wikipedia:
In 1987, Joe Biden ran as a Democratic presidential candidate. When the campaign began, he was considered a frontrunner because of his moderate image. However, the campaign ended when he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party. Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one where he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by Kinnock, with only minor modifications.
WOW!!
The Audacity of Plagarism …
You’re about year old on this one.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/16/patrick_obama_campaigns_share_language_of_hope/
Keep trying, you’ll eventually hit something.
Since Coop Deval is compaining for Obama, one would assume obama had license to use Deval’s words.
The above poster makes it seem like everyone knew Obama has been plagiarizing Duval’s words all along. I, for one, did not know this. And I’d like an explanation from Obama.
The speeches are almost identical, and that is not right. Obama did not say he was just repeating some else’s speech.
Why am i not surprised? The man has always come across phony to me. Right from the start. Almost as phony as his pal the Reptilian Con Edwards.
I’m with Jon on this one. Let’s see what Obama has to say, if he says anything.
If Obama is indeed copying Deval Patrick’s ideas and words, maybe Patrick should be running for President and not Obama. More to the point, maybe Obama supporters should know that they’re essentially voting for the ideas espoused by the very liberal Governor of Massachusetts.
Someone should go to an Obama rally and see if he’s using any crowd manipulation techniques. Obama’s preacher uses them at his church, maybe he’s taught his favorite attendee a thing or two?
The manipulation techniques that I see him using with his speech and music are the kind that hit a pleasure center of the brain that leaves the attendees glassy-eyed and wanting more. The fainting is part of it.
This is news to us. The videos playing side-by-side almost sync in speech and tone. HORRIBLE. His rhetoric isn’t even his own.
If just one or two phrases repeated, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and call it a coincidences…but 4 phrases repeated with the same cadence, tone and intonation?
I’ve posted before about how Obama uses old school “gold dust preacher” tricks to hypnotize crowds: steadily increasing volume of voice and music, steadily increasing his cadence, chanting/repeating the same words and phrases over and over and over, swaying, saying something very general that can apply to all then quickly saying specifics to grab different parts of the crowd and pull them in. If it gets really warm where he’s speaking, that’s another technique.
I’ve heard Hank Hanegraf talk about this when he talks about how cults work…it’s kind of like a semi-conscious (ie, awake) hypnotism.
Maybe Obama is studying speaking styles that work and forgot that he studied that guy.
This is a pretty obvious lifting of Patrick’s speech, but it’s not clear that Obama himself was the one who did the lifting. I’m sure he has a number of speechwriters and other aides cranking this stuff out for him, and the most likely scenario is that one of them put it in. It would be interesting to know if there is any overlap between Patrick’s staff from 2006 and Obama’s staff this year. In any case, this is likely to be a serious embarrassment, if Hillary and/or McCain decide to make an issue out of it.
Every word spoken by Hussein Obama is someone else’s words. He’s simply a tool to spout the words from a prompter and a cheat sheet. He has no idea of what he speaks but makes it sound good. In other words he’s a con man’s con man.
B Hussein Obama-50% white, mothers side, 43.5% Islamic Arab, father’s side-6.5% African Negro from a grandparent on fathers side. Any questions about where he has been getting millions of dollars from and will end up getting hundreds of millions of dollars from?
Joe biden called Obama and told him “I feel your pain”
Obama replied “I heard that before but thanks I plan to use it !”
Deval gets the AG slot if Obama wins.
A crack in the messianic aura of the Great and Dear Leader, the Messiah of America, the Blessed Star of Illinois, the Healer of Eternity?
How is this possible? He descended from the right hand of the Father, after all, and one thousand cranes descended from Heaven to place his infant body wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. This we all know.
I live in the country where dial up is the only option right now so I can’t watch videos unless I wait for them to download. I want a transcript.
apparently Obama has a little Carlos Mencia in him
Did Deval Patrick’s version make a thrill go up Chris Matthews’ leg?
Well, since our Governor, “Coupe” Deval patrick is a an empty suit monument to Liberal white guilt it’s perfectly normal the Obama would have similar policies and statements. These statements are my nature empty and vague as are all Liberal concepts. Look at their slogans, Deval used “Together, we CAN!” and Obama’s is “Change we can believe in.” I’m sure Obama will do as much for America as Deval has done for Mass.
Liberal lemmings will get what they deserve.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Good one. I am writing that down.
GETTING CAUGHT PLAGIARIZING ENDED BIDEN’S RUN EXACTLY TWO DECADES AGO - IN 1988.
* WILL IT END OBAMA’S?
* LOOK AT THE TWO SPEECHES YOURSELF.
* I THINK IT PROVES OBAMA IS A HOLLOW MAN AND A PHONY AND A FAKE, AND THAT THIS FIND - BY BIG HEAD DC - MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT BLOGPOST OF THE ELECTION SO FAR..
Ok Obama so you were caught AGAIN. People who were inspired and thought you were so great with your speeches have realized that those aren’t your’s. Who were you trying to kid? I’m sure a lot of people feel pretty stupid, after all you plagiarized someone else’s words. Many of us have said you are a salesman and will do anything to win the nomination and look what you were doing all this time. Did you honestly think the media wouldn’t throw this one out and you could get away with it? Call Oprah maybe she’s got the answer, after all she knows everything.
They both have David Axelrod as their political operative- lots of other overlapping words as well- “authentic”? NOT-
This is baffling. Did he think he could get away with it? Or was he led stray by some speech writer?
Someone should be held accountable for this glaring error.
The Obama campaign has issued a statement from Gov. Patrick: “Sen. Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language. The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Sen. Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/obama-echoes-de.html
Duval Patrick is a major reason that Barack Obama did not win in MA. The residents already elected and ‘empty suit’ with flowery rhetoric. In fact, David Axelrod was Duval’s ‘Brains’ too…
Obama is not plagiarizing Patrick. he is playing the same role & following the same script is all…..
http://NewYorkWhitePride.BlogSpot.Com
Obama’s supporters don’t think of them as “just words,” but many of them also think they are at least somewhat original.
What Obama did is the same as what Biden did when he was forced to drop out in 1987.
wonder if this means Biden is a shoo-in for VP
BigHead, you are ruining a savior to millions of ppl I love it!!!!
Obama NEEDED vetting. Axelrod effed up.
Next Obama will take credit for MLK’s “I Have A Dream”
[…] Obama caught plagiarizing? I don’t think so. […]
THIS IS NOT A SCANDAL
Obama was on stage with Deval the night he gave that 2006 speech.
I know for a fact that this speech was written in Boston for Deval- it doesn’t matter if Obama was on stage or not- he still fraudulently used someone else’s words without giving credit- it’s not the first time -check out other speeches by Deval full of change and hope-nor will it be the last. David Axelrod has been tuning up for this with his other candidates- two other AA mayors, Patrick and now-Obama - his piece de resistence-We’ve been had.
Wow you totally nailed Obama (not).
BTW, maybe you should “break the story” of how BOTH of those speeches were just plagiarizing other peoples speeches.
Did you know that it wasn’t Obama or Duval who came up with “Ask not what your country can do for you” or “I have a dream”??
THEY ARE BOTH PLAGIARIZING!!!!
Either that, or they just both quoted some very famous lines, and both used the term “just words”, because they were both being attacked by their opponent of using “just words”.
Wow… this is such earth-shattering news that it warrants this site’s plagiarizing Matt Drudge’s emergency flashing light!
Obama should have credited his source. This is basic politics, and it proves he is not ready for this position. I am saddened.
There was a defining moment in sports history; the awakening of a new great, one for the ages. Michael Jordan, young star of the Bulls and prolific scorer — with seconds remaining against the superior Cleveland Cavaliers in the deciding game in Cleveland — takes the inbounds pass, leaves defender Craign Ehlo on the ground, and drains the long jumper, ending the series.
The Cleveland fans — certain they had already won the game/series — sit in stunned silence. Jordan, euphoric, runs to the side court, jumps high in the air and screams “Go Home!” An unparalleled competitor is born, yes, but for me (Bulls fan) the best part of the story is the stunned I-can’t-catch-my-breath horror of the Cleveland fans.
Who will be the Michael Jordan who gets to crush the spirit of the supporters of this fraud Obama, and leave them gasping for their next breath? They have so overplayed this clown that he can’t help but pull a Wile E. Coyote and realize that he’s over the cliff. Next comes the anvil.
It is commonly known that Patrick and Obama are good friends and have a shared approach to politics. Obama was with him on an occasion of expressing this thought. It is his thought as well. That is NOT plagiarism. If Obama did not see it as reinforcing their shared sentiments, he would not deliver the speech as he did and where he did. He knows the same people are watching in an age of hyper-communication. Think people. THINK.
He stole lines word for word. It’s not right. THINK.
Heh…is this the best “dirt” you anti-Obama folks can come up with?
His election is inevitable.
The GOP will have a field day with this guy. Hillary is tested. My vote is now sealed.
Good work BHDC. I’ve always said that you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
And you can quote me on that.
Reciting celebrated words to fend off a criticism is pretentious more than anything else.
Pretentious because empirically those famous words can never be “just words”. Because we know the deeds that were done, by the many noble men and women in history, to uphold those great words. It’s the deeds that make those words profound.
Anyway, using famed words does nothing to speak to why someone is criticizing you for “just words”. Telling us your own deeds would be the best because recitation of famous words is not a deed.
Yes, Sheryl, not to mention the fact that he reiterated the SAME SPEECH that somebody else ALREADY used to fend off criticism…
Obama/Biden ‘08?
So it turns out the great orator, the messiah of politics, is a plagiarizer.
DEVAL: “…just words; ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,’ - just words. Just words. ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself,’ - just words. ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,’ - just words. ‘I have a dream,’ - just words.”
OBAMA: “Don’t tell me words don’t matter. ‘I have a dream,’ - just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,’ - just words. ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself,’ - just words. Just speeches.”
Bonnie yes it’s plagiarism but the more salient point is Deval & Obama both would be wise to address why they are being criticized and not to use stagy tactics like this. It just looks like political puffery.
The GOP AND Dukakis called Biden out for doing something wrong, and Obama, too, has done something wrong, as the smoking gun video makes clear. You just aren’t allowed to copy phrases and words verbatim and make it appear as though those words are your own. It is dishonest, and it is dirty politics.
It wouldn’t matter if NBC uncovered home video of Obama engaging in child abuse, they wouldn’t broadcast the item and if they were forced to comment on it they would dismiss it as old news.
The joke used to be the only way a sure-thing could lose the election was to be found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. My money says not even those would turn the media’s Ministry of Truth into some sort of liability for Obamessiah. Obama’s election is assured unless he quits the race. McCain won’t attack and the media won’t report in any meaningful way before the elction.
The current betting odds on Obama to be next PUSA 11-10 the bookies never lie. All the fucking racist pigs will burn.
talk of cults…and pin heads use words like veted? if you want to vote for mccain vote for the guy, don’t lie to yourself to justify your vote.Mrs. Clinton will give it to the repubs before she gets taken down. this talk of mich and florida getting delegates and the speech near disney to ” thank florida voters” ya know people…friends of mine…and the brothers and sisters of friends of mine are dying and have died in this war. This war is real. and Mrs.Clinton and McCain support it…She wants a take back on her vote. tell that to the dead soilders….there are no take backs in war.
[…] Obama Caught Plagiarizing 2006 Speech? Big Head DC has discovered alarming similarities between a speech made by Sen. Barack Obama on February 16 while campaigning for president in Wisconsin and an October 2006 speech made by Deval Patrick, the current Democratic governor of Massachusetts. The coincidences would seem to indicate that Obama copied several lines and linguistic speech patterns from Patrick’s “Just Words” speech for Obama’s own “Words Matter” speech. Indeed, words do matter. And they matter even more when they are one’s own words. […]
What a phoney baloney. Since this is pretty much the only thing he has going for himself - the fine rhetoric - this has got to hurt. No doubt he is a very intelligent man. Much smarter than Clinton and McCain but he’s not really accomplished much of anything.
Maybe all that dope and coke smoking caused him to forget that he heard this speech before.
I would argue words do matter-
“The people in this stadium need to know who we’re going to fight for,” Obama said at Soldier Field. “The reason that I’m running for president is because of you, not because of folks who are writing big checks, and that’s a clear message that has to be sent, I think, by every candidate.”
www.politicalamnesia.blogspot.com
Again, Deval Patrick is supporting Obama.
He would obviously know if Obama is using his speech.
Yet he still supports him. If you are using the work of someone else with their apparent consent, then it isn’t plagiarism. I don’t recall him saying his speech is all his own.
“As not what your country can do….” that was stolen too!
[…] Barack Obama Messiah — of Plagiarism of Deval Patrick February 18, 2008 http://bigheaddc.com/2008/02/17/obama-caught-plagiarizing-2006-deval-patrick-speech/ […]
Obama will easily take Wisconsin - I and everyone I know and talk to is voting for him. Hillary = Bush-lite.
obama has such a cult following that like, the leader of a cult, he could stand up in front of people and blow 100 of them away and the people would still vote for him.
This is a non story. Both were being attacked and both responded with valid use of powerful phrases that could have been written off as “just words”. The moment its explained that they are friends and show that they use similar words, and responses this story disappears.
Facts are, if the original writer of the speech gave it to Obama, it isn’t plagiarism. If you expect Obama to write every one of his own speeches, you don’t know how campaigns work.
Oh no! Obama plagiarized a speech! Let’s have mass-murdering McCain or lying Clinton as president instead! And if anyone thinks plagiarizing a speech killed Biden’s campaign, hit yourself in the head with hammer, because it won’t make you any dumber.
BTW- His middle name is Hussein, his last name is one letter away from Osama, he’s a crypto-Muslim, no wait he’s a black separatist Christian; oh and he rubbed elbows with a scumbag! Did I mention that he’s reminiscent of Hitler?
What is he running for anyway? Captain of the 8th Grade debate club?
I am an author and also former academic and have seen plagiarism–this is not remotely plagiarism.
Like Patrick, Obama was responding to a similar charge that dissed his rhetoric, using famous speech lines, etc. that are part of our American rhetorical treasury. These lines are frequently quoted by politicians. Everyone uses them.
Clintonites are really desperate if they’re trying this one out. Likewise the attack on Obama supporters as “cultists.” What a crock. I’m a lifelong democrat, supported Bill Clinton strongly, ditto Gore and Kerry. I chose to support Obama based on his positions (try reading his web site), his background in constitutional law, his age, and yes, his style and rhetoric because I think we are in a huge crisis and need someone as inspiring as FDR, JFK, RFK, MLK. I do not think Hillary Clinton has that in her, and I feel she has never explained to my satisfaction why she has more than once voted to give Bush extraordinary powers that should never have been ceded to the president. I haven’t joined a cult, I am not living in a dream world. But I do feel hopeful that Obama as president could turn this country around.
[…] I stole that headline from a commenter at Big Head DC, who has two videos posted — one made by Deval Patrick, the current Democratic governor of Massachusetts, from a speech in October of 2006, and the other made by Chebama™ on February 16 of this year. […]
I am an author as well, and this meets the definition of plagiarism. Yes, words do matter.
[…] Its too bad they’re also someone else’s speeches. […]
Friends or not, you can’t just go using someone else’s stuff. Try it out, college kids who love Obama so much. Turn in your friend’s paper for a class and see how quickly you fail!
Plagiarism? Hardly. This wouldn’t make it into a court of law. In academe, I have seen students lift, verbatim, whole paragraphs. Now that is plagiarism. You might as well call FDR a plagiarist who said: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This was taken, no doubt, from Henry David Thoreau who said: “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”