I've spent the whole day watching for signs that might predict whether Clinton's latest attempt to create a non-issue about Obama--let's call it plagiarism-gate--will achieve any traction. There was Jeffrey Toobin to reassure me, noting that all candidates have staff writers, and there was Evan Wolfson forced to concede that he couldn't say Cllinton had never done the same thing. And there was Obama himself treating the whole incident as casually as it deserves.
But then there was Lou Dobbs, swallowing hard Clinton's whole premise that this is a "character" issue. And worse, there was Lou Dobbs, calling for more attention to the quote at issue, wondering aloud how either Deval Patrick or Obama could insult MLK by treating the "I Have A Dream" speech as "just words." My jaw dropped. If Lou Dobbs doesn't even understand the point of the comment in question, gets it exactly backwards, in fact, then what hope is there that the public at large can be trusted to reject this whole ridiculous episode.
But maybe I underestimate the public. Maybe they do understand that the crime of "plagiarism" makes no sense in this context. That the hortatory style of speechifying that both Patrick and Obama draw upon is one built upon implicit reference and allusion to past struggle. It was bad enough when Clinton's gambit was to dismiss Obama's words as mere "rhetoric." Now, envious of that rhetoric's power to move, she's hit upon a way to distract from the meaning of that rhetoric. As if the fact that Patrick said the same thing earlier detracts from its power!
As several have noted, the attacks on Obama have now become attacks on his authenticity, but the very idea that his speech has to be 100% original to be authentic is wrong on so many levels. Of course, Obama is a "we" guy and Clinton is a "You" and "I" person. The allegation of plagiarism becomes the last effort of the "I" people against the "we" people. The gambit may yet work, but right now, Clinton is like the straight-A student upstaged by the kid who didn't follow all the same rules, and yells, "he cheated."