The Clinton camp seemed to be getting decent mileage out of the "Obama plagiarism" controversy. All over the blogs, hitting the Cable nets, and so on...all the classic media storm elements. It's a pretty clean way to push the "Obama's just another politician" meme, which the campaign has been trying to do for some time. So, far, some success.
And then, as the Clinton camp is wont to do, they pushed too hard.
Enter the AP:
Hillary Rodham Clinton says reporters, not her campaign, uncovered evidence of Democratic rival Barack Obama sharing speech lines with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
She made the claim Tuesday despite the fact her campaign posted video clips on YouTube illustrating similarities in the speeches and has suggested in several instances that the shared lines amount to plagiarism.
Whoops! Unfortunately, the words are from the candidate's mouth.
"It's not us making this charge, it's the media," Clinton told Honolulu television station KITV Tuesday. "The media is finally examining my opponent which I think is important. We're trying to pick a president, someone for the toughest job in the world."
She added: "I think the media is going to be putting forth whatever facts and information it has for voters to assess on their own."
The AP's take:
FACT CHECK: Any suggestion that the story had a life of its own, apart from the Clinton campaign, is disingenuous.
The AP is being polite here, but I believe the word they are looking for is "Lie".
This reminds me of some previous episodes, where the Clinton camp was getting some traction on the idea that Obama's just another politician...he's planned to run for President a long time, etc. And then they killed it by including the dumb-ass "kindergarten" reference. It's been a running joke since.
Nice job, Clinton team. You've officially killed this storyline. Better luck next time!
http://ap.google.com/...