Emphasis on delivered.
It is, of course, no secret that most politicians and their wives have their speeches written for them by professional speech writers. No doubt this was the case for Melania Trump.
So it is quite fascinating that this morning's headlines (SEE:Melania Trump Plagiarized Michelle Obama, a Woman Republicans Said Hated America) ) suggest, with pretty solid evidence, that part of Melania's speech was plagiarized--by taking chunks from, get this, Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention.
A professional writer writing a speech for a worldwide audience plagiarizes from a Michelle Obama nationalized speech! Sounds like sabotage to me,
It is noteworthy that the Hillary-side CNN talking heads immediately after the speech pointed out that the speech lacked any anecdotal stories about Donald and Melania. Such anecdotes are part of politician's wife speech writing 101. Why weren't there any in the speech?
I am not exactly the touchy-feely type but I was waiting for the anecdote(s) that never came.
What was going on here? No anecdotes but boxy phrases from a Michelle speech that don't sound like Melania at all.
Bill Kristol is enjoying this much too much, we need to know who the speechwriter was. He retweets:
The derin devlet lives. Who was Melania's speech writer, who recommended her, and how did the derin devlet get to them?"I was born a poor black child.” #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes— Libby Hill (@midwestspitfire) July 19, 2016
In a none plagiarized part of the speech, which actually sounded like her, Melania said there would be "ups and downs" in the campaign as it moves toward election day. She probably had no idea that her speech would be an object lesson in this.
I'm guessing that this will probably energize her to do more for the campaign and not leave it on a down.
-RW
UPDATE
At @BPolitics breakfast, @Reince says he'd "probably" fire the speechwriter for Melania’s remarks if the person worked for him and did that.— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 19, 2016
UPDATE 2
This I don't get.
The Trump campaign has no plans to fire or discipline anyone over Melania Trump's speech. https://t.co/bj0t9jVxpC— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 19, 2016
Who wrote the speech, Jared Kushner?
UPDATE 3
James Carville Explains How Melanie Trump Was Sabotaged
Trump supporter Illana Mercer is worth reading to get the scoop on Trump's new neocon establishment friendly campaign. It all started with the ouster of Corey Lewandowski.
ReplyDeleteI think it might be exactly the opposite. Trump has once again punked the nation. What would have been a boring, forgettable speech that would have had a few seconds played a few times has been turned into the talk of the country.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this was an accident.
You might be onto something, somehow no matter what happens trump knows how to steal the spotlight.
Delete@Unknown: You've got your thinking cap on. It does have the hallmarks of a Trump media op. The focus ends up being a totally substance free debate and therefore no scrutiny of the rabid maniacs who spoke before and after.
DeleteI thought this when I heard about the inside-the-beltway brouhaha, ha ha! Besides, didn't Michelle O plagiarize Alinsky in her 2008 speech?
DeleteFeels very much like the Trump-Pence logo, which was first circulated by the RNC and one of the PACs. Hard to tell if it was a hit job or a publicity stunt, but hard to believe it was anything other than intentional.
ReplyDeleteThe RINOs are attacked cry baby.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course it is possible, but the press treatment of this minor error is appalling.
ReplyDeletePlagiarism, in normal life, is a serious charge and not one to be uttered lightly, and it is never one to be shouted from the rooftops, but in politics things are different.
So we see stories everywhere, literally everywhere, saying Melania Trump “plagiarized” a paragraph from Michelle Obama’s convention speech of 2008.
In fact, this is a very good measure of how totally bent the press is against Trump.
Melania is not a politician.
She does not write speeches.
She did not write this speech.
I doubt very much she ever listened to Michelle Obama. Actually, few people do.
While Melania is a very intelligent woman – she speaks four languages - how could she possibly know whether a speechwriter on her husband’s staff borrowed a few phrases?
Clearly, she could not. So how can she be accused of plagiarizing Mrs. Obama as the press is almost universally asserting?
The whole point of such “speeches” is just to show off a candidate’s spouse, not really to say anything. All such speeches, including Mrs. Obama’s of 2008, are just fluff, filler, devoid of significance, excuses to be put on stage before lights and cameras and to be judged for poise and tone.
And Mrs. Trump delivered her modest words with great success, and this genuinely beautiful woman just sparkled on camera.
The press should be ashamed of the accusations, but the press - as we can see from the way it handles a whole panoply of serious and deadly world events - no longer has much to do with digging out information and presenting it with impartiality.
Sadly, its role now is largely as a propaganda machine serving establishment interests, one just as clumsy and obvious in its way as Pravda was in the heyday of the USSR.
As someone who plans to vote for Jill Stein, even I think this issue is stupid. Even if Melania wrote this part of the speech, which is doubtful, it sounds like she simply didn't know how to paraphrase enough to avoid plagiarism. Academics and journalists are trained how to do this but as Melanie Trump is neither, she just didn't know the rules. Recall, also, that rules about this vary widely among cultures and she may have learned different rules. She deserves a break.
ReplyDelete