Heard the latest between Obama and Hillary Clinton? Apparently, Clinton’s campaign manager has accused Obama of plagiarism in his speech. Amazing how speeches become a matter of word. Howard Wolfson, the communications director for Senator Clinton, made reference to a passage in Obama’s speech in the presence of reporters and compared it to the speech made by Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts Governor, in 2006. This incident was said to have happened recently, on Saturday.

The problem with a charge of plagiarism is that it is only plagiarism when a line is used without permission. It is said that Patrick has defended Obama on this and had criticized Clinton’s campaign for this attack. Both Obama and Patrick freely admit that they share ideas. Patrick is also an adviser to Obama. Since Obama used a line with Patrick’s permission, there was no issue of plagiarism. It is disappointing to see Clinton resorting to such tactics to bring Obama down. Many speeches are written by speech writers and candidates never call their names or give them credit. This is such an everyday occurence.

It is said that the Clinton campaign circulated YouTube links to the speeches on Sunday. Mr Wolfson said Senator Obama was ‘breaking his promises and his rhetoric isn’t his own’. The Clinton campaign is now desperate to thwart Senator Obama’s momentum ahead of two key primaries on March 4 - Texas and Ohio. What a shame to see them go to this extent to cut Obama’s throat. Desperation for Senator Clinton as her run for presidency is threatened perhaps?

When questioned,Senator Obama said he was ‘happy to give Deval credit, as I give credit to a lot people for spurring all kinds of ideas’.

It looks to me like Hillary Clinton is trying all means and ways to attack and defeat Obama. While she tries to convince a declining number of voters to vote for her, we can wait and watch to see how Obama retaliates.

Via: TimesOnline