Letters to the Editor
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Hillary Didn't Plagiarize
Besides that she only borrowed a few words, debates and prepared speeches are very different things. I don't really think you can plagiarize in a debate. She repeated something that she had heard before in informal remarks, perhaps not even remembering where she'd heard it. People inadvertently repeat other people's phrases all the time. A speech is very different; you can't offer the excuse that you were saying whatever came to your head, because it's all prepared and written down. Obama clearly intended to take Patrick's words, while we have no way of knowing whether Clinton intended to take Edwards's. Also, Edwards's words were less obscure than Patrick's. You can't plagiarize something if it's so widely known that no one's likely to think you made it up yourself. No one knew when Obama trotted out the line about people voting for their own aspirations that he'd actually expropriated it from Patrick. In fact, reporters wrote about what a great line it was for weeks until it came out that it wasn't his. People instantly knew, on the other hand, that Clinton's words were taken from Edwards because everybody saw those debates just a month ago. It's like if she said "where's the beef" - nobody could call that plagiarism, because we all would know where it came from. If you take words from some obscure Massachusetts politician on the other hand, you ought to cite them.