This one is interesting. John McCain has been ballyhooing his national experience as a mark of his superiority to Barack Obama, but according to Taegan Goddard he may just have plagiarized parts of his speech on Georgia from a Wikipedia article.
A Wikipedia editor notices some similarities between Sen. John McCain's speech today on the crisis in Georgia and the Wikipedia article on the country Georgia. They appear similar enough that most people would consider parts of McCain's speech to be derived from Wikipedia.
First instance:
one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion (Wikipedia)
vs.
one of the world's first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion (McCain)
There's more on Taegan Goddard's page, which are really damning in a way that Cindy McCain stealing recipes from Rachel Ray is not.
McCain's only possible strength after the beating our country has taken on the home front in the past eight years is his alleged foreign policy experience and smarts. If his campaign doesn't know enough about foreign policy to avoid cribbing from Wikipedia, how the hell is his administration going to know?
All foreign powers will have to do is edit the online encyclopedia and suddenly we'll be best friends with North Korea and bombing Holland.
And this is not the first major chink in his foreign policy armor, what with not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shia, confusing the borders in the Middle East, and thinking the Iron Curtain countries like Czechoslovakia are still in the same configuration as they were when McCain was first elected.
Joe Biden got bumped out of the 1988 (I think) race for President by cribbing parts of a speech in the primary. We can only hope this will not be a case of IOKIYAR and the media will be as tough on McCain as they were on Biden.
Yeah, right.
Update: Some folks question whether this is a bad thing, since Wikipedia has a Creative Commons GNU public license on their work. The answer is that it is, since the CC license requires attribution.
Update II: Had a request for more instances. Here they are.
Second instance:
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia had a brief period of independence as a Democratic Republic (1918-1921), which was terminated by the Red Army invasion of Georgia. Georgia became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 and regained its independence in 1991. Early post-Soviet years was marked by a civil unrest and economic crisis. (Wikipedia)
vs.
After a brief period of independence following the Russian revolution, the Red Army forced Georgia to join the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union crumbled at the end of the Cold War, Georgia regained its independence in 1991, but its early years were marked by instability, corruption, and economic crises. (McCain)
Third instance:
In 2003, Shevardnadze (who won reelection in 2000) was deposed by the Rose Revolution, after Georgian opposition and international monitors asserted that the 2 November parliamentary elections were marred by fraud. The revolution was led by Mikheil Saakashvili, Zurab Zhvania and Nino Burjanadze, former members and leaders of Shavarnadze's ruling party. Mikheil Saakashvili was elected as President of Georgia in 2004. Following the Rose Revolution, a series of reforms was launched to strengthen the country's military and economic capabilities. (Wikipedia)
vs.
Following fraudulent parliamentary elections in 2003, a peaceful, democratic revolution took place, led by the U.S.-educated lawyer Mikheil Saakashvili. The Rose Revolution changed things dramatically and, following his election, President Saakashvili embarked on a series of wide-ranging and successful reforms. (McCain)