Obama's State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism
WaveCameCrashin
Posts: 2,929
Yes We Can !!!!! "We are the ones wev'e been waiting for" :roll: What a fraud... I bet you wont hear or read about this in the main stream media..
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/alv ... print.html
By ALVIN FELZENBERG
Posted: January 26, 2011
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama’s second State of the Union address contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince. I suppose this is what one does when one not only has nothing new to say, but is required by custom and Constitution to come forth with a report of some kind by a certain time and day.
Had Obama or his writers been considerate enough to have informed listeners of where some of the president’s best lines and offered-up ideas originated, the speech might be remembered for its cutting and pasting of great and not-so-great moments of the past performance of others. After quoting Robert Kennedy early on, Obama tried to have his listeners believe that everything else he said that we might remember were his or his writers’ creations. Had the president submitted the text of his second State of the Union Address in the form of a college term paper, he would have been sent forthwith to the nearest academic dean. Once again, our public affairs are such that we have one standard for presidents and another for undergraduates. Now is as good a time as any to let Obama’s listeners in on what the late Paul Harvey would have termed “the rest of the story.” [Take the poll: Was Obama’s State of the Union speech a success?]
Early in his address, Obama said that he wanted the nation he leads to be a "light to the world." The last president who set such a mission for the nation he led, and in those exact words, was Woodrow Wilson.
Obama’s concept of the “American family” may well have had its origins in the first State of the State address New York Governor Mario Cuomo delivered in 1983. Cuomo proclaimed the state of New York as a “family.” He also talked about multiple partnerships, both public and private.
In an address to the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s, Margaret Thatcher delivered what might go down as the most memorable line in Obama’s second State of the Union address. The British Prime Minister told her American audience that the United States was the “first nation to have been founded on an idea.” It took the president a few additional words to get this idea across.
Obama’s pointed mutterings about a second “Sputnik Moment” being upon us and his recollection of how American policymakers responded to the last one with increased expenditures on infrastructure, science, technology, and education were clearly intended to evoke the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower. His setting of specific deadlines and goals was vintage JFK, but for the absence of any sense of challenge to his audience, list of benefits the United States would derive from them, or any semblance of a shared adventure the American people were about to embark upon. [Read Robert Schlesinger: Obama Not the First to Use 'Sputnik Moment.']
There was a certain Back to the Future feel to the masterful tributes Obama paid those Ronald Reagan might have described as “ordinary heroes.” After all, it was Reagan who began the practice of inviting citizens who had done extraordinary things to sit beside the first lady in the House gallery as the president recited their achievements. It was also Reagan who reminded his listeners that the greatness of America emerged not from the hand of government, but through the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on Obama.]
Obama received his most sustained applause when he said, "I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth." Leaving aside the faulty grammar (people change places with people, not with nations), the poaching from John F. Kennedy's immortal inaugural address was obvious enough for the most historical of Obama's listeners to notice. ("I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.") That Obama could utter almost identical words days after paying tribute to Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of the delivery of that famous speech and not making reference to it suggests a self-absorption rare even among presidents. [See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.]
Most pointedly, the low point of Obama’s speech came when he brought back government re-organization from the ash heap of failed efforts of previous presidents who sought to save money without inflicting pain on a public that had grown accustomed to government largesse. This one, like all that talk about all those green energy jobs that lay before us, had fallen out of the presidential repertoire with retirement of Jimmy Carter. Obama might have had the decency to have Carter on hand to witness the moment. He will have another chance should he, when he delivers his budget, bring back that other Carter flop from yesteryear, “zero based budgeting.” [See a slide show of 10 worst presidents.]
Even Obama’s feigned attempt at humor had an antecedent in the remarks of a predecessor who spun better yarns than this president. Obama informed his listeners that salmon comes under the jurisdiction of one department when swimming in fresh water and under another when swimming in salt water. He rhetorically inquired what happened to the fish when “smoked.”
Somewhere in the White House library resides a published letter Franklin Roosevelt wrote to an adviser in which he complained that some bears were the property of the Interior Department, while others belonged the National Parks System. FDR, tongue in cheek, warned of a pending custody battle over cubs that emerged from illicit unions of bears crossing departmental jurisdictions. [Read A Brief History of the State of the Union Address.]
It would appear that the only president of note whose imprint was absent in Obama’s long awaited and much-anticipated speech was Obama. This was supposed to have been the moment when the nation found out whether he was at the core a Rooseveltian liberal of a Clintonian centrist. What it got was a cut and pasted version of great and not-so-great State of the Union and other addresses of the past.
Sometime last year, many suggested that Obama would have an easier time getting his message across if he was less dependent on his teleprompter. This may be the year his writers are advised to throw away their books of political quotations. Then we may finally find out what the president truly believes and what he hopes to achieve in the office he so ardently sought.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/alv ... print.html
By ALVIN FELZENBERG
Posted: January 26, 2011
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama’s second State of the Union address contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince. I suppose this is what one does when one not only has nothing new to say, but is required by custom and Constitution to come forth with a report of some kind by a certain time and day.
Had Obama or his writers been considerate enough to have informed listeners of where some of the president’s best lines and offered-up ideas originated, the speech might be remembered for its cutting and pasting of great and not-so-great moments of the past performance of others. After quoting Robert Kennedy early on, Obama tried to have his listeners believe that everything else he said that we might remember were his or his writers’ creations. Had the president submitted the text of his second State of the Union Address in the form of a college term paper, he would have been sent forthwith to the nearest academic dean. Once again, our public affairs are such that we have one standard for presidents and another for undergraduates. Now is as good a time as any to let Obama’s listeners in on what the late Paul Harvey would have termed “the rest of the story.” [Take the poll: Was Obama’s State of the Union speech a success?]
Early in his address, Obama said that he wanted the nation he leads to be a "light to the world." The last president who set such a mission for the nation he led, and in those exact words, was Woodrow Wilson.
Obama’s concept of the “American family” may well have had its origins in the first State of the State address New York Governor Mario Cuomo delivered in 1983. Cuomo proclaimed the state of New York as a “family.” He also talked about multiple partnerships, both public and private.
In an address to the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s, Margaret Thatcher delivered what might go down as the most memorable line in Obama’s second State of the Union address. The British Prime Minister told her American audience that the United States was the “first nation to have been founded on an idea.” It took the president a few additional words to get this idea across.
Obama’s pointed mutterings about a second “Sputnik Moment” being upon us and his recollection of how American policymakers responded to the last one with increased expenditures on infrastructure, science, technology, and education were clearly intended to evoke the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower. His setting of specific deadlines and goals was vintage JFK, but for the absence of any sense of challenge to his audience, list of benefits the United States would derive from them, or any semblance of a shared adventure the American people were about to embark upon. [Read Robert Schlesinger: Obama Not the First to Use 'Sputnik Moment.']
There was a certain Back to the Future feel to the masterful tributes Obama paid those Ronald Reagan might have described as “ordinary heroes.” After all, it was Reagan who began the practice of inviting citizens who had done extraordinary things to sit beside the first lady in the House gallery as the president recited their achievements. It was also Reagan who reminded his listeners that the greatness of America emerged not from the hand of government, but through the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on Obama.]
Obama received his most sustained applause when he said, "I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth." Leaving aside the faulty grammar (people change places with people, not with nations), the poaching from John F. Kennedy's immortal inaugural address was obvious enough for the most historical of Obama's listeners to notice. ("I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.") That Obama could utter almost identical words days after paying tribute to Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of the delivery of that famous speech and not making reference to it suggests a self-absorption rare even among presidents. [See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.]
Most pointedly, the low point of Obama’s speech came when he brought back government re-organization from the ash heap of failed efforts of previous presidents who sought to save money without inflicting pain on a public that had grown accustomed to government largesse. This one, like all that talk about all those green energy jobs that lay before us, had fallen out of the presidential repertoire with retirement of Jimmy Carter. Obama might have had the decency to have Carter on hand to witness the moment. He will have another chance should he, when he delivers his budget, bring back that other Carter flop from yesteryear, “zero based budgeting.” [See a slide show of 10 worst presidents.]
Even Obama’s feigned attempt at humor had an antecedent in the remarks of a predecessor who spun better yarns than this president. Obama informed his listeners that salmon comes under the jurisdiction of one department when swimming in fresh water and under another when swimming in salt water. He rhetorically inquired what happened to the fish when “smoked.”
Somewhere in the White House library resides a published letter Franklin Roosevelt wrote to an adviser in which he complained that some bears were the property of the Interior Department, while others belonged the National Parks System. FDR, tongue in cheek, warned of a pending custody battle over cubs that emerged from illicit unions of bears crossing departmental jurisdictions. [Read A Brief History of the State of the Union Address.]
It would appear that the only president of note whose imprint was absent in Obama’s long awaited and much-anticipated speech was Obama. This was supposed to have been the moment when the nation found out whether he was at the core a Rooseveltian liberal of a Clintonian centrist. What it got was a cut and pasted version of great and not-so-great State of the Union and other addresses of the past.
Sometime last year, many suggested that Obama would have an easier time getting his message across if he was less dependent on his teleprompter. This may be the year his writers are advised to throw away their books of political quotations. Then we may finally find out what the president truly believes and what he hopes to achieve in the office he so ardently sought.
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plagiarism |ˈplājəˌrizəm|
noun
the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
I don't recall him turning this in as a term paper or trying to trademark any of the phrases.
Non-story is why you haven't heard of it elsewhere.
And since when is USnews not mainstream? Not exactly underground.
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Hail, Hail!!!
Seriously, do some people just sit in a cardboard box and think of ways and reasons to hate someone?
This article is 'tantamount' to a giant yawn.
fool me once.....
So taking a poke at the buffoon that is GW is tantamount to hate?
That's some interesting logic right there.
A President who lied repeatedly to the public, funded and trained death squads in Latin America with funds gained from selling arms illegally and covertly to Iran, tried to cover up countless massacres and rapes of tens of thousands of civilians - inluding nuns - in Nicaragua, Guatamala, and El Salvador, and who pissed on the U.S Constitution.
Alvin Felzenberg sure is someone who should be taken seriously!
no it was just the state of the union address. no big deal :roll:
non story ? Really ? Maybe joe had a hand in writing the sotus for him :P
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washing ... arism.html
Writing a major political speech like Tuesday's Obama State of the Union Address is an extremely complex undertaking typically lasting weeks and involving contributions from dozens of people by the end of the prose assembly process when the elected official reads over a late draft and adds his or her own touches for spoken comfort.
We are told that President Obama had a direct hand in crafting the 6,200 or so words that millions watched on nationwide television with the members of Congress as applauding props in a joint session.
One final trick of good speechwriters is to make their written words sound like somebody else's with the vocabulary, cadence and tone of the boss. That's no easy task and one reason Obama's top speechwriter is paid the $172,000 maximum for presidential aides.
Among the numerous working drafts, the alterations and edits for delivery time, policy or political sensitivities, it's easy for nuances or key words to get dropped unnoticed from a speech as it typically goes from hand to hand.
And, of course, such addresses do not contain the kinds of source credits and detailed footnotes that a diligent Barack Obama would have required when he was elected the first black president of the esteemed Harvard Law Review exactly 21 years ago next week.
During his Tuesday evening address to a joint session of Congress Obama cited....
...by name the late Sen. Robert Kennedy as saying, “The future is not a gift. It is an achievement."
However, a number of other passages coming out of the presidential mouth struck a few listeners as sounding vaguely familiar. Talking of the need for improved education, Obama in one prominent line said, "We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea." Hmm. Turns out, someone else said those same memorable words about the time Obama was editing the law review.
The United States, that previous politician told an American audience, is the "first nation to have been founded on an idea." But what U.S. Democrat would want to quote Britain's conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on national TV?
Over at the U.S. News site, Alvin Felzenberg, the presidential scholar, has assembled a list of other striking coincidences, parallel constructions and references from the president's 2011 speech. The headline on Felzenberg's piece is carefully phrased: "Obama's State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism."
Plagiarism is much more serious in the academic world than in the free-for-all world of politics where no patent exists on such common, trite phrases as "The time for action is now!" Or, "With all due respect, my opponent is wrong." Or the ever annoying, "moving forward."
Reporters who've logged hundreds of political speeches over the years are also struck by the amazingly identical nature of certain humorous anecdotes shared with appreciative audiences by self-deprecating politicians about what their precocious children are said to have said to them once.
And, to be honest, politics being the world's second oldest profession, there are likely few words or combinations of words that remain truly original over the milennia.
Two years ago next week during the heat of the Democratic presidential primaries, members of Hillary Clinton's team thoughtfully pointed out to reporters some striking similarities between passages in 2008 Obama speeches and debates and those from the 2006 campaign of fellow Democrat Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts.
At the time a defensive Obama, not particularly prone to saying "oops," claimed that he and friend Patrick "trade ideas all the time." Asked about giving another politician credit, Obama said, "I'm sure I should have," adding that he doubted voters much cared.
Indeed, voters and the media were then soon plunged into the Obama campaign controversy over his 20-year connection with the volatile Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose racist video sermons surfaced, altough Obama claimed no knowledge of such outbursts during his regular attendance.
Plagiarism also figured in the early demise of then-senator, now Vice President Joe Biden's presidential hopes in 1988. His unattributed and widespread lifting of material from British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock was exposed, including even biographical details true to Kinnock but not Biden's life.
Those revelations prompted other discoveries of the Delaware senator lifting speech passages from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey and Biden also admitted flunking one law school course at Syracuse University for plagiarizing five pages of one article for a term paper.
Thus endeth that campaign.**
-- Andrew Malcolm
Like your someone who should be taken seriously. :roll: Look where you live and your countries history dude. I guess you can just say whatever you want about your great leader right ? Don't the women their have forced abortions if they have more than 1 child ? Please.. you got some nerve.
Really ? well why dont we see how he does without his faithful sidekick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJSVPAx8xc
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Um... correct me if I'm wrong... but... isn't that kinda what you did in post one of this thread?
Seriously... you need me to send you my mother's bran muffin recipe or something?
Bottom line is this Obama is nothing more than an empty suit and he's not that smart. Did you ever think maybe why is it that all of his college thesis is sealed?What's so important that it has to be kept secret from the public?
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Oh dear.
someone thinking that taking a stab at me for making porn is going to hurt my feelings.
Dude, if saying "you make porn" was going to hurt my feelings or score you points... I wouldn't have told you I make porn or used my porn name as my user name here. So say "yeah, well... you make porn" all you want. It just proves that you have no REAL comeback to my critique.
And don't be silly... I make porn. I don't eat carbs.