Hillary Clinton's campaign needs something. They need some turning point here before the March 4th primaries in Texas and Ohio to stop Obama's momentum. Maybe the "plagiarism" issue will work? You've probably heard about it but just in case read below from The Guardian and then we'll discuss:
Hillary Clinton's campaign to bring to an end Barack Obama's eight-state winning streak before today's Wisconsin primary went to the heart of his appeal by accusing him of plagiarising lines in his speech and copying her economic plan.
The allegations struck at Obama's inspirational rhetoric - which he deployed to good effect against Clinton when the two appeared at a Democratic dinner in Milwaukee at the weekend.
Yesterday, the Clinton campaign noted that Obama lifted a key passage of his speech defending the power of oratory from the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick.
"Don't tell me words don't matter," Obama said in his speech. "'I have a dream' - just words? 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal' - just words? 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' - just words? Just speeches?"
The passage was borrowed verbatim from a 2006 speech by Patrick and available on YouTube.
Although the Clinton campaign was unable to provide proof of systematic borrowing by Obama, they said it called into question his entire campaign, which has been based, in part, on soaring speeches.
"It raises questions about the premise of his candidacy," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's spokesman, told reporters in a conference call. Campaign aides also accused Obama of copying Clinton's economic plan, which she released as a 13-page booklet yesterday.
Obama admitted yesterday that he should have credited Patrick, who campaigned for him in Massachusetts and has also worked with the political consultant David Axelrod. But he insisted that most of the words were his own. "Look here, I've written two books. Wrote most of my speeches," he told reporters in Ohio. "Deval and I do trade ideas all the time, and, you know, he's occasionally used lines of mine."
He went on to accuse Clinton of stealing some of his lines.
Look, since it doesn't appear to be a pattern, this plagerism angle seems like it has a short shelf life. But you know what? It's not about politically wounding Obama with one fatal blow. With the Clinton campaign, it's going to be death by a thousand paper cuts. If they can someone make little hits on his credibility and then wallop him on the fact that he hasn't been vetted enough, then they may have dome some damage to the Obama brand.
Notice I said the Obama brand, not Obama himself. Yes, they have to go after him but his brand is "a new way of politics and authenticity". If they can poke holes in that brand, they have a chance to take him down. No small task. Hillary Clinton will need her "A" game Thursday night in Austin. Obama has fought back and stood up to her and the Clinton campaign time and time again throughout this primary process. Thursday in Austin he better be ready one more time.