Clinton begins the meltdown

From The Politico:

Howard Wolfson, the Clinton campaign's communications director, today accused Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of committing “plagiarism” in a speech in Milwaukee on Saturday night.

Wolfson made the explosive charge in an interview with Politico after suggesting as much in a conference call with reporters.

On the call, Wolfson said: “Sen. Obama is running on the strength of his rhetoric and the strength of his promises and, as we have seen in the last couple of days, he’s breaking his promises and his rhetoric isn’t his own.”

Obama closely echoed a passage from a speech that Deval Patrick, now the Massachusetts governor, used at a campaign rally when he was running for that office in 2006.

The Clinton campaign circulated a pair of YouTube links of the two speeches on Sunday.

Here's Patrick at a rally for his gubernatorial campaign on Oct. 15, 2006, during the final stretch of his successful campaign against then-Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey (R):

“But her dismissive point, and I hear it a lot from her staff, is that all I have to offer is words — just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, [applause and cheers] that all men are created equal.’ [Sustained applause and cheers.] Just words – just words! ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words! ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ Just words! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words!”

Here’s Obama on Saturday night at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Founders Day Gala in Milwaukee:

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words! [Applause.] ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words — just speeches!”

An Obama official said: “They're friends who share similar views and talk and trade good lines all the time.”

Obama apparently ad-libbed the remark, which was not in his text.

The Massachusetts governor said in a statement: “Sen. Obama and I are longtime friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language. The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Sen. Clinton, I applaud him [for] responding in just the way he did.”

The Obama campaign immediately struck back with a document headlined: "Here are a couple of places Clinton freely borrowed rhetoric from Obama."

Among the examples are Clinton's use of Obama's signature chant "fired up and ready to go" in Davenport, Iowa, and later her echoing of his rally cry, "Yes, we can!"

The plagiarism wars are the nastiest turn yet in the Democratic presidential nomination race as the campaigns gird for clashes in debates in Texas and Ohio, to be followed by primaries in those states on March 4.

Two points. One, Obama isn't all that bright so it isn't much of a surprise that he needs a bit of help with his lines. Having said that though, the comeback to the Clinton charges of offering "only words" was so obvious, quote some great words by great men, that it is entirely possible that Obama came up with it on his own. Two, Clinton is seriously grasping as straws. She is behind and has little prospect of catching up. She seems to be losing the super delegates. Edwards seems about to endorse Obama and the word is that Gore is just waiting for the "right time" to publicly back Obama as well.

As an aside, how terribly pathetic is the Democrat party that that the support of halfwits like Gore and Edwards is actually seen as something to be proud of.