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I Took the Hit that I was Given then I Bumped Again
By Jeff Fecke | February 21, 2008
Easily the most powerful moment of tonight’s debate came from Hillary Clinton, giving a closing that was almost a concession speech, in a way. And it was well done — and I think quite genuine — and it’s why I’ve been utterly unable to join with the true Hillary haters throughout the campaign.
It’s undeniably a powerful moment, and there’s only one minor problem with it; Clinton borrowed a line in it from her husband.
Josh Marshall has the goods:
I mentioned at the end of my debate blog that the pivot of Hillary’s powerful concluding remarks came from Bill Clinton’s 92 campaign. Clinton had various permutations to it back then. But TPM Reader CG found one example in this November 1992 article by Anna Quindlen …
Clinton, 92: “The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time.”
Hillary Clinton, tonight: “You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.”
Now, you may say, “That’s really not that big a deal, Jeff; doesn’t Bill really owe Hillary free use of every line he ever used in a speech?” Well, yeah. Plus, it’s a great line. And oratory is all about taking and reusing great lines. Putting a call back to a very good speaker and pretty good president like Bill Clinton? Especially when you started the sequence by talking about him cheating on you? That’s sheer brilliance. I like it all the more for that.
The problem, though, is that even tonight, Hillary attacked Obama for “plagiarizing” Deval Patrick, saying, “That’s I think a very simple proposition. And you know, lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in — it’s change you can Xerox.”
Here, see for yourself.
I said before that the plagiarism charge is silly, and it is. And it’s no less silly when it affixes to Hillary Clinton rather than Barack Obama. But that’s exactly what it does here. Because Clinton lifted a passage from someone else’s speech tonight, just an hour or so after blasting Obama for that “sin.” And that takes a moment that should be very powerful and moving tonight and, sadly, blunts it. Makes it less than what it should be. It’s a totally self-inflicted wound, and it’s sadly emblematic of the Clinton campaign as a whole.
UPDATE: According to the Obama campaign, the “we’ll be fine” was borrowed from John Edwards. Again, this is silly — but live by the silly season, die by the silly season.
Topics: Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton | 2 Comments »
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:26 am
I thought that it was particularly strange in retrospect. Her ending prepared in advance and the Xerox line sounded obviously pre-planned (to my ears). So why, if you know you’re going to leave yourself open to the charge, go after it again? I think there are too many cooks in her kitchen. I’m an Obama supporter who looks back on the halcyon days of Fall 2007 when I could have easily taken any Edwards, Obama, or Clinton equally. I feel bad for her, now. It’s as if her campaign has done her a real disservice. I’m thinking less that they’ve shown too little of her, but maybe have given an entirely wrong impression. If she makes it to Pennsylvania, she should continue with the firings (and slow it down with the spending).
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
I mean the spending on hotel rooms and fruit platters. (I just read that NYT article.)