Title: What Everyone is Missing About Melania Trump’s Plagiarized Speech Source:
The Anti-Media URL Source:http://theantimedia.org/missing-melania-trumps-plagiarized/ Published:Jul 19, 2016 Author:Nick Bernabe Post Date:2016-07-19 18:36:33 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:3036 Comments:17
Cleveland, OH — Melania Trump’s RNC speech, which was partially plagiarized from a Michelle Obama speech, has become such a popular subject that #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes has turned into a trending topic on Facebook and Twitter.
As you can see in the video below, several segments of Melania Trump’s speech were lifted directly from Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech, but there’s one detail everyone is missing about this whole debacle.
The missing detail is summarized perfectly—and ironically—by an official statement from Melania Trump’s Facebook page following the fallout:
“[S]ome instances” of the speech, the statement confesses, “included fragments that reflected her own thinking.”
Starting to see the problem yet? Melania Trump didn’t plagiarize Michelle Obama; Melania’s speech writers copied Michelle’s speech writers.
“So what?” you may ask. Most politicians and public figures, including Trump, Hillary, and Obama, have speech writers. But the problem is more profound than simply having speech writers, and Melania’s statement inadvertently exposes the point I’m trying to make: Politicians have become actors instead of thinkers.
They don’t write their own speeches. Someone else does—and they simply read the words from a teleprompter. Much in the same way TV “journalists” simply read the scripts they are given, politicians are not speaking their minds. They are speaking words written by advisors, focus groups, and speechwriters who think they know what the public wants to hear. On some occasions, the speeches may contain “fragments” of the person’s actual thoughts. On other occasions, they may contain none.
Hell, lawmakers don’t even make laws anymore—lobbyists do.
We no longer have politicians in America who are willing to tell people the harsh truths they don’t want to hear. The rhetoric and narratives communicated to the American people are cooked up by unelected bureaucrats in backrooms to make us feel better about the increasingly unpopular talking heads that 70 percent of Americans feel are steering the country in the wrong direction.It’s a big scripted show, and it sure isentertaining. Maybe that’s why Donald Trump’s entrance to the RNC last night had a striking similarity to the ones seen in professional wrestling
Jonathan Tobin @ Commentary Magazine hit on the issue I was trying to make in a different posting today :
In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor story. And if the Trump campaign were not an extension of the personality of Melania’s egotistical husband who is never a big enough man to admit a mistake, the damage might have been mitigated. A quick admission of error might have lessened the sting. But as is characteristic of Trump, his handlers doubled down on their denials and sought to use the story as an excuse to bash Hillary Clinton while arguing that interest in the similarities is a sign of media bias.
But the issue here isn’t whether Melania Trump is as guilty of plagiarism as Joe Biden. It’s the unprofessional nature of a Trump campaign that is still not ready for prime time. Letting his wife onto the podium with a speech that was either cribbed in part from a Michelle Obama effort—after she had said earlier in the day to NBC’s Matt Lauer that she had written it herself—or without the sort of supervision that would have ensured something like this couldn’t happen (like running it through a computer program that looks for plagiarism) reflects badly on everyone in the campaign and gives us a hint of the sort of mistakes a Trump White House might make.
Of course, Trump fans will say they don’t care just as they haven’t cared about every other gaffe made by the candidate. But the problem here is that Trump is no longer playing to a primary electorate in which his followers can dominate but to a general election audience. Indeed, that was the whole point of trying to create a special Melania moment in which those not already besotted with Trump’s frat boy manners could get a glimpse of a more attractive side of him.
So while Melania’s plagiarism isn’t a reason to vote for Hillary Clinton, it was an epic fail that indicates Trump’s team still believe they don’t have to care about making sloppy mistakes. That bodes ill for the rest of the campaign, and is one more reason for Republicans to lament having handed over their party to Trump and his toadies.
Trump’s team still believe they don’t have to care about making sloppy mistakes. That bodes ill for the rest of the campaign, and is one more reason for Republicans to lament having handed over their party to Trump and his toadies.
Isn't this a little academic now he has the nomination confirmed, he has become the yes I can man and we will all have to be careful of the over inflated ego
