While the basic ideas expressed in this passage are hardly ground-breaking, it's impossible for me to look at this passage from Melania Trump's speech and not see it as a direct lift from the analogous speech by Michelle Obama in 2008.
Melania claimed she wrote the speech — but, given modern political stuff, it's unlikely. Not to take anything from Ms Trump, but speechwriters are a part of life. I would expect that she would have final say on the wording, but in terms of the initial draft, or vetting it for plagiarism, no, I wouldn't expect that from her.
The issue will be, to my mind: how will the Trump campaign react. It would be remarkable if they actually fired the ass of whoever was the guy or gal was who did the primary drafting of this; I'd actually be mindly impressed. But denial / deflection seems the most likely, because that's how Trump handles things — and his supporters seem immune to fact-checking, so no harm done.
Melania Trump’s prime-time speech was strikingly similar to Michelle Obama’s
Michelle Obama’s speech contained largely the same sentiment and arrangement of words.
It was a exact copy & I would litigate. That is something the Trumps & the only thing they understand about this Nation.
I am amused that NPR, in their standard suck up to the right way, couldn't bring themselves to say plagiarized this morning.
I honestly can't tell real life from the onion anymore.
I doubt she knew they came from Michelle's speech. They should definitely fire her speechwriter though; this is borderline sabotage and I would litigate also.
+Andrew Brown I am definitely willing to give her a break. Current info is that many hands were involved, and the speech was reviewed and signed off on from high by RNC officials. One would think someone would have recognized the problem, but it may be difficult to actually pin down who added these passages.
Nobody gets a break.
The NPR Ombudsman defended not calling the plagiarized parts of the speech plagiarism because they do not know if there was an intent to plagiarize.
+Stan Pedzick "I didn't plagiarize — I just copied the good parts."
Lol