Plagiarism by any other name...

Well there is plagiarism, and there is stupid plagiarism and there is the stupid blatant plagiarism that Republican politicians insist is not plagiarism at all.  Yes, I am talking about Melania Trump’s Convention Speech which really would have been utterly boring, totally predictable in its praise for her beloved Donald, and gotten very little comment except she happened to use word for word some comments made by Michelle Obama eight years ago.

Then we got stories that Melania wrote the entire speech herself, oops wait, no she worked with some speech writers for a couple months, oops, maybe somebody should be fired for not checking the entire text carefully,  oops…

Then we got the official party spin delivered by Paul Manafort, who is now running the Trump campaign.  In a press conference he somberly declared that this was just a typical Democrat political dirty trick since they were the fist to bring this issue up (as if the press and commentators would have missed it) and added:   "This is once again an example of how when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she tries to demean her and take her down."  Now this is totally preposterous!  Nothing Melania said even remotely referenced Hillary.  What does Melania Trump’s plagiarism have to do with her threatening Hillary?  Has the Republican Party truly gone insane?

Read the following and judge for yourselves:

Michelle Obama in 2008::  “And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if
you don’t agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

Melania Trump in 2016:  “From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generation to follow because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

It is blatantly obvious that Melania’s comments used complete phrases that are word for word for word copies from Michelle Obama’s speech.  If you want me to believe this is pure coincidence I will flatly tell you, you’re stupid not me.

I have a degree in journalism and made a living in various aspects of writing for 45 years  so don’t try to tell me anything about plagiarism.

Now we’ll get all the Trump campaign  crap that it really was not plagiarism, the content and Melania’s sincerity is all that matters, standard norms of writers’ integrity do not apply to the Trump family blah, blah, blah…

But one thing I noted that I have not seen any others comment upon.  In Michelle’s speech she said “Barack AND I were raised with so many of the same values…”  Melania stated that her values were instilled in her by her parents so we can assume they are not necessarily shared by her husband.  So forgetting the plagiarism, her speech explains nobody instilled any values in Donald and that’s why he has no values at all.