Michelle & Melania: Side-by-Side Speeches: You decide...

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Did Melania Trump plagiarize, in part, Michelle Obama's speech?


  • Total voters
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Mar 2, 2016
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#21
No. I cannot see any "irony" in it at all.

I also don't see any issue with it, if she used some of the same phrases. Is this a paper being submitted for a Nobel prize? Is this speech some kind of priceless literature?

News flash...... It's a POLITICAL SPEECH. Who gives a rat's behind about using the same phrases?

Or, I should ask, who, in their right mind gives a rat's behind about it?

Good grief, the depths that people sink to.....

Do you really think she wrote it? I imagine a speechwriter did it, then passed it along. How is Melania Trump supposed to know that it contained phrases that Michelle Obama uttered 8 years ago?

Even if she knowingly used those phrases "lifted" from Obamaette's speech... isn't imitation supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery?

Cry me a freakin river....
It isn't even a political speech. It's just a non political woman supporting her husband doing the best she can. You'd think people expected a speech from her about the nuance of Sino/America relations.
 
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Voldemort

Guest
#23
Watching the RNC on FOX News (still), and they just explained that this actually is pretty significant. I understand to people who already decided they were going to vote for Trump a long time ago, this is nothing, but to independents it does matter.

They explained that it takes a huge staff who vets what the speech writer writes to make sure it doesn't contradict their previous speeches AND to ensure the speech is clean, free from "lifting" phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc... from other people.

This shouldn't be a reflection on Melania, but a reflection of the incompetent staff Trump has, at least in terms of his speech writers.
 
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Voldemort

Guest
#24
No. I cannot see any "irony" in it at all.
I'll try to explain the irony.

1.) Melania's 2016 Republican Convention speech was "lifted" from Michelle's 2008 Democratic Convention speech. One would think if a speech had "lifted" elements, it would be from someone of the same party, not the opposing party.

2.) Trump prides himself as speaking his mind (not reading what people write for him). Melania initially claimed that she wrote the speech with little help (as reported on FOX News). Now that there is a side-by-side, FOX is reporting that Melania wrote a draft and almost none of it was used in the speech she gave at the convention. Had Melania, like her husband, spoke her mind, I highly doubt she would have used the exact same language that Michelle used.
 

FlSnookman7

Senior Member
Jun 27, 2015
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#25
The irony is that one of these women (Mrs Obama) talked about something that her actions have shown to be false and the other (Mrs. Trump) lives a life showing them to be true. Mrs. Obama has benefited from taking advantage of a liberal system where "public service" makes one rich by stealing from those it pretends to help while Mrs. Trump worked her way to the top of her field before marrying someone. I understand how liberals who want everything given to them because they view themselves as victims would have a problem with this however that is more a reflection on themselves than anyone else.
 
Mar 2, 2016
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#26
I'll try to explain the irony.

1.) Melania's 2016 Republican Convention speech was "lifted" from Michelle's 2008 Democratic Convention speech. One would think if a speech had "lifted" elements, it would be from someone of the same party, not the opposing party.

2.) Trump prides himself as speaking his mind (not reading what people write for him). Melania initially claimed that she wrote the speech with little help (as reported on FOX News). Now that there is a side-by-side, FOX is reporting that Melania wrote a draft and almost none of it was used in the speech she gave at the convention. Had Melania, like her husband, spoke her mind, I highly doubt she would have used the exact same language that Michelle used.

"Lifted" is a pretty strong word.
 
Mar 2, 2016
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#27
you could use the word lifted for this speech tho.

[video=youtube;8M6x1H08aFc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6x1H08aFc[/video]
 

Yeraza_Bats

Senior Member
Dec 11, 2014
3,632
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#28
you could use the word lifted for this speech tho.

[video=youtube;8M6x1H08aFc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6x1H08aFc[/video]
I actually found it funny how Obama's version got like no response at all : p
 
Feb 7, 2015
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#29
I'll try to explain the irony.

1.) Melania's 2016 Republican Convention speech was "lifted" from Michelle's 2008 Democratic Convention speech. One would think if a speech had "lifted" elements, it would be from someone of the same party, not the opposing party.

2.) Trump prides himself as speaking his mind (not reading what people write for him). Melania initially claimed that she wrote the speech with little help (as reported on FOX News). Now that there is a side-by-side, FOX is reporting that Melania wrote a draft and almost none of it was used in the speech she gave at the convention. Had Melania, like her husband, spoke her mind, I highly doubt she would have used the exact same language that Michelle used.
It won't be long till you see the posts about the book Michelle "lifted" her remarks from.... written in about 1972, as I recall.

It's all foolishness. We have to quit trying to slit throats.
 

Desdichado

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2014
8,768
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#30
It's more or less evidence of how rote and dull modern political speeches have become.
 
Mar 2, 2016
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#31
It won't be long till you see the posts about the book Michelle "lifted" her remarks from.... written in about 1972, as I recall.

It's all foolishness. We have to quit trying to slit throats.
We need to quit having different standards for different people. It seems that if you have a D by your name you are given a wide birth by the media.
 
Dec 1, 2014
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#32
Hilary's career of corruption gets no play from the OP but another Trump said something and it calls for analytical dissection.
 
Mar 2, 2016
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#33
Hilary's career of corruption gets no play from the OP but another Trump said something and it calls for analytical dissection.
If you tell a lie to a conservative it makes them angry.....if you tell the truth to a liberal it makes them angry. Lol
 
V

Voldemort

Guest
#34
Hilary's career of corruption gets no play from the OP but another Trump said something and it calls for analytical dissection.
This is unfair. I can't make you respond to the posts I've written in response to Hillary's corruption. My posts in opposition will go unnoticed as any wrong deeds Trump does seems to go unnoticed by you as well...

I've stated my opinion and outrage over Hillary Clinton's actions of hiring the people who helped her delete the emails and evidence from her private server as her attorneys so that they cannot be be called in court to testify. I've condemned her lack of action that got American soldiers killed. I've condemned her husband's trade treaty that they paraded as awesome. I've condemned her decision to invade Iraq. I've said all this within the threads of the News forum. Your unwillingness to read them does not equate to my unwillingness to call a spade a spade with Hillary Clinton.
 
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Voldemort

Guest
#35
It's more or less evidence of how rote and dull modern political speeches have become.
I totally agree. This is one of the things I do like about Trump though. His ability to say what's on his mind. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on what comes out.

It's something I respect with Chris Christie as well.
 
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RachelBibleStudent

Guest
#36
this was plagiarism beyond a reasonable doubt...i also think it's likely that melania was -set up-...as i will explain in another post...

first the speeches themselves...and establishing the passage in question from melania trump's speech to be plagiarized from michelle obama's speech in the most illustrative way i know how...

what follows is the passage from melania trump's speech followed by the passage from michelle obama's speech...words that match i have put in bold...entire phrases of consecutive words that match i have additionally put in italics...for additional clarity i have color coded some parts towards the end where the limitations of my system of bold and italic text would create false impressions about the length of the matching sections... this breakdown has actually been rather conservative in that i have not counted conceptual matches nor have i counted pronouns that by the grammar of pronoun reference could be construed as a match...

melania trump...
"From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

michelle obama...
"And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children, and all children in this nation, to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

while we can dismiss 'values' as a trivial match due to the commonness of the term...the rest of the speech contains entire phrases that are identical...and moreover the matching phrases are in identical order...

the first is clearly a close paraphrase of the second...the odds of this many coincidental words and entire phrases in the exact same order are very slim to the degree that we can dismiss the theory that this happened by chance...

this is the same kind of effect i have seen from students who have copied from wikipedia but tweaked a few mostly insubstantial parts in order to fool the teacher or themselves into thinking it passes as original work...

this is what i would expect from a speech writer who had michelle obama's directly speech in front of her and slightly 'personalized' it...
 
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RachelBibleStudent

Guest
#37
now to explain why i believe that melania trump was in fact maliciously set up...

from melania trump's speech...
"He will never, ever give up. And most importantly, he will never, ever let you down."

mostly for the sake of humor some media people pointed out a similarity to the chorus from a song called 'never gonna give you up' by one hit wonder rick astley...which goes "Never gonna give you up / Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert you" etc.

while as i said this was mostly pointed out for the sake of humor...i believe that in the correct pop cultural context this could be considered a 'fingerprint' of the one responsible for the plagiarism...

the song in question is part of a widespread internet meme called a 'rick roll'...a prank where an unsuspecting viewer intends to watch one video only to find that it is actually rick astley's rather cheesy music video with a fake title or some other simple form of disguise...

the intended message of a 'rick roll' is pretty simple...'you just got trolled!'

while it might sound obscure to a lot of people reading this...any geek who went to college in the 2000s knows about this... but in fact this meme is known at high levels in politics too...back when nancy pelosi was speaker of the house she hid a 'rick roll' in the first video on the house's new official video channel...and a cheeky state legislature once scheduled a series of speeches containing deliberately inserted phrases that were then rearranged in an online video to form rick astley's complete song lyrics...

so my scenario is that there is quite possibly a 'mole' in trump's campaign...perhaps a millennial generation intern...who for some reason decided to 'troll' melania trump...setting her up for public embarrassment by including plagiarized content from a michelle obama speech...and then 'signing' it as a troll act with the 'rick roll'...

if my scenario is true...then this was a pretty sleazy and mean thing to do to her...
 

JosephsDreams

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2015
4,313
467
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#38
Beats Michele's for the first time in my life I am proud to be an American statement back in 2008. That and Jeremiah Wright. The country got what they deserved with this saboteur president.
 

JosephsDreams

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2015
4,313
467
83
#39
Beats Michelle's for the first time in my life I am proud to be an American statement back in 2008. That and Jeremiah Wright. The country got what they deserved with this saboteur president.
 

peacenik

Senior Member
May 11, 2016
3,071
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#40
Jeremiah Wright

But, but, but .... I thought Obama was a "Muslim". He wouldn't pay any attention to a Christian professing preacher if he was!