This is going to be brief.
What Obama did in Wisconsin this past Saturday was not plagiarism. Anyone who says that it was, is full of it. Not only are they full of it, they are basically falsely accusing him of a crime that he did not commit. That doesn't rank highly in my book.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about plagiarism:
Generally, although plagiarism is often loosely referred to as theft or stealing, it has not been set as a criminal matter in the courts.[6] Likewise, plagiarism has no standing as a criminal offense in the common law. Instead, claims of plagiarism are a civil law matter, which an aggrieved person can resolve by launching a lawsuit. Acts that may constitute plagiarism are in some instances treated as copyright infringement, unfair competition, or a violation of the doctrine of moral rights. The increased availability of intellectual property due to a rise in technology has furthered the debate as to whether copyright offences are criminal.
The only way that Obama could conceivably be charged with plagiarism would be for Deval Patrick to bring a suit against him (and this hypothetical suit would almost certainly fail, considering that the supposedly 'lifted' lines were from a speech and were not repeated verbatim). Considering that Governor Patrick suggested to Obama that he say the words that he said, this is maybe just a wee bit unlikely, ya think?
Personally, I don't take too kindly to folks throwing around baseless accusations about progressives breaking the law. Accusing someone of plagiarism is not a small thing, especially considering that plagiarism is grounds for expulsion at many colleges and universities. This is clearly an inflammatory accusation, and should be treated as such. The news media should push back against anyone who is peddling this line, asking them point blank: "Are you accusing Barack Obama of breaking the law?" If the answer is "No," the follow up should be: "Then why are you using the term 'plagiarism'?"
Calling what Obama did 'plagiarism' is like calling someone hitting a deer with a car 'manslaughter.' It is absurd and inflammatory.