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McCain's Borrowed Words
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In his speech tonight, John McCain referenced a "holiday from history" to deride his opponents -- well, really, mostly Barack Obama.
Guess what -- STOLEN WORDS! There's an epidemic.
Charles Krauthammer seems to be the proprietor of this cliche -- although lots of others have used the term.
We think Krauthammer should be given more nods for at least heading the google list (although I should add that a cursory survey I did from Narita Airport also doesn't produce anything I can find before his 2003 reference).
But to our knowledge, John McCain has not given him credit.
But can Barack exploit this vulnerability? Hillary?
-- Steve Clemons
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Reader Comments (8) - post a comment
I'm assuming these sarcastic words mean you now acknowledge the silliness of accusing a pol of plagiarizing a speech? You seemed to find fault with Obama in comments to your previous post about the matter, which seemed strange to me since you clearly know that politicians generally don't write their speeches.
I think you'll find that George Will is the progenitor of the phrase, in his 9/12/2001 op-ed, "The End Of Our Holiday From History". Rhetorical theft all around!
So when GWB uses a word, a certain temporal sonic production, but the meaning is not aligned with common usage, this is okay. You can't steal the wrong use of language!
To suddently complain about Obama for using language in an attempt to inform, instead of mislead, wow! Wow!
Hopefully Obama will steal words when necessary to inspire and lead us out of the Hell we are in.
Gads, I love it when the advocates for the various candidates defend their "straight talking" heroes by justifying their use of plagerized rhetoric.
Politics seems to be the only calling where a script is used so openly to imply sincerity.
Whats amazing is the American public's willingness to continue buying into this effin' horseshit, despite decades of broken campaign promises and little or no representation.
We truly are a nation of gullible jackasses.
Bend over America, here comes the next self serving posturing sold-out scumbag President. Has he or she said what YOU want to hear yet? Well, hang in there, they'll get around to it yet.
Insanity, in some circles, is defined as committing the same actions over and over, expecting different results each time. Well, welcome to the latest electoral circus, and the American public's insanely ovine expectations.
But THIS time, it will be different.
Right.
matt is right. this is george will's phrase. i remember that op-ed well.
Noun. Verb. Holiday from history.
(/Biden)
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