These accusations of plagiarism are not only hurtful to me, but they are hurtful to my children Sasha and Malia ~ Melania Trump (fake) quote via Twitter.
Donald Trump's 3rd wife upgrade and Slovenian model Melania (ne Knauss) speechified at the Trumpian National convention on 7/18/2016, the first day of the convention (held, as the first GOP debate was, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland OH).
"I wrote it with as little help as possible" Melania said. A claim that was later called into question when Aliver Jarrett Hill noticed that lines from Melania's speech seemed to have been copied verbatim from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech.
A Daily Kos article refers to the cribbing as "stunning plagiarism" that should be fatal to Donald Trump's campaign, while Trump supporters claimed that the Melania speech contained what seemed "like pretty common platitudes you might hear in any inspirational speech". Another one asked was that "is 21 words out of 2,000+ really blatant plagiarism"?
So... coincidence? Bob Rutledge, a Montreal-based astrophysicist, wrote that "I calculate the probability that Melania Trump did not plagiarize from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech is about 1 in 87 billion". So... probably not coincidence?
Yeah... no. The speech WAS plagiarized, as the Trump campaign now admits.
| Trump speechwriter Meredith McIver says the copied passages were due to a miscommunication. In her telling, Melania read some phrases to McIver over the phone and McIver didn't realize they were verbatim quotes from Obama's 2008 speech. (Trump camp admits Melania speech passages came from Michelle Obama's speech by Timothy B. Lee. Vox 7/20/2016) |
So why the hell didn't Melania tell McIver that what she was reading was from Michelle Obama's speech. I'm guessing McIver thought Melania was reading something she wrote? Also, why didn't Melania, when she received the speech and read it, notice that what she'd read to McIver over the phone was in the speech verbatim? Even though she dropped out of college after 1 year, she SURELY should have known that plagiarism is a no-no and that she'd be caught (Busted: Melania Trump Caught Lying About Graduating From College).
But what about the speechwriter Meredith McIver? As a professional speechwriter, shouldn't it have occurred to her that maybe she should check something fed to her by a reality TV star's trophy wife? How embarrassing. The exact opposite of what you want to do if your goal is to "offer a sharp contrast with the failed progressivism of the last eight years", as Paul Ryan said Trump will do. Quote the "failure in chief" wife's 2008 DNC convention speech, that is.
BTW, I read another excuse to which I say NO. Supposedly Melania Trump's plagiarism is the same/bad as Joe Biden's plagiarism.
| Rational Nation: It is a tempest in a teapot. As well as highlighting the stupidity of the Trump campaign handlers. Joe Biden, as well as others have been guilty of the same. Unethical and therefore wrong on all counts. Melania is no worse than any of the others. Now, it's time to move on IMO. Bigger fish await to be fried. (7/19/2016 AT 7:34pm) |
This insertion of Joe Biden into the conversation is a reference to Joe Biden being "accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party". But the truth is that Biden was quoting Kinnock. And Biden gave attribution to Kinnock when quoting him. Although he apparently forgot two times ("at the 8/23/1988 Democratic debate at the Iowa State Fair [and] in an 8/26/1988 interview for the National Education Association").
So... BFD? Or a tempest in a teapot, which is how Biden referred to his plagiarisms. Apparently not. According to a 8/25/2008 Slate article, Why Biden's plagiarism shouldn't be forgotten, he also "had lifted significant portions of speeches from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey". To which I say, at least he was quoting/borrowing from fellow Democrats, as opposed to the political opposition, not to mention the wife of the outgoing president (one who your party/candidate has been harshly critical of).
Which is why I said NO to the Rational assertion. Or this instance of plagiarism is a lot more LOL-able, at least. Because here we have a Republican quoting a Democrat, as opposed to a Democrat quoting a Democrat. Not that the Biden quoting scandal was LOL-able at all. Which, to me, as a Democrat, it isn't (btw, for another LOL-able moment from the Melania Trump speech, see the video at the bottom of this post).
Anyway, as a result of "the sheer number and extent of Biden's fibs, distortions, and plagiarisms" (Slate's words) he dropped his 1988 bid for the White House. As for Melania, she says she graduated with "a degree in design and architecture from University in Slovenia" but that turns out to be false. Similar to how one of Biden's fibs being an exaggeration of his academic record. Biden said he "went to law school on a full academic scholarship [and] that he graduated in the top half of his law-school class". Claims that turned out to not be true.
Which causes me to ask... should Melania drop her 2016 FLOTUS bid? A question I ask in jest, of course. However, as Newt Gingrich (himself a serial wife upgrader), in pointing out why Melania is on the ticket (when defending her copying of Michelle), noted "she was stunningly attractive [and] stunningly articulate" (articulate in that she is good reader). And that Melania also "introduced herself in a way that's attractive". Clearly attractiveness is key. Which is the whole point of upgrading to a trophy wife.
Also, when it comes to trophy wives, youngness is also key; and Meliana, who is currently 46, would turn 50 during her husband's first term (should he be "elected"). Therefore she could end up being dropped from the ticket (as First Lady) anyway. Eventually. In the unlikely event she attains that position.
Video: Melania Trump's Other Plagiarism Scandal... Melania closed her speech by saying "he will never ever give up, and most importantly he will never ever let you down"... which led some to ask, did Melania Rickroll the RNC (Wikipedia: Rickrolling is a prank and an Internet meme involving an unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song Never Gonna Give You Up)(0:26).
No comments:
Post a Comment