"Unfit for Leadership"

[sleigh]

Let me give you a hypothetical... What do you think the reaction would be if Obama, in a major speech on the Russian-Georgian conflict, were caught lifting lines straight out of Wikipedia? Do you think the press (and the Rovian jackals in the McCain campaign) would jump all over him, having a field day about how Obama is so unprepared for foreign policy leadership that he has to resort to Wikipedia to understand what's going on? Wouldn't that be the lead political news story of the day?

Well, it appears that's exactly what John McCain did. According to the Political Insider site, McCain (or the staffer who wrote his speech) lifted lines directly from a Wikiepdia article on Georgia when he gave his speech yesterday on the situation there.

Gee, if he did that in one of my classes, he'd have received an "F"...

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Much as I dislike McCain, I'm not persuaded. As the article points out, the third example isn't all that close. Regarding the first instance: there are only so many ways to phrase that fact. And I don't find the second one to be an obvious lift, either; while it refers to the same facts, why wouldn't it if both Wikipedia and the McCain speech are relating events in somewhat chronological order? "Lifting lines straight out of Wikipedia"? I don't see it.