There’s a commotion in some circles because parts of Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican convention were suspiciously like the speech Michelle Obama gave in 2008.
Yes, it’s probably plagiarism, but I don’t care. They’re just political speeches and don’t mean anything. Donald Trump would probably not be a contender today if Barack Obama had fulfilled his 2008 promise:
I just have two words for you tonight: five days. Five days. After decades of broken politics in Washington, and eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that’s taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.
In five days, you can turn the page on policies that put greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street. In five days, you can choose policies that invest in our middle class, and create new jobs, and grow this economy, so that everyone has a chance to succeed, not just the CEO, but the secretary and janitor, not just the factory owner, but the men and women on the factory floor.
Those working people are worse off now than they were in 2008, which is a big reason Trump is doing so well. I can’t see either Trump or Clinton helping the situation, but I hope I’m wrong. In the meantime I’ll ignore the speeches and see what the winner actually does.
it’s so interesting to me that we as a people keep thinking that ONE MAN…
or woman…
is going to change anything.
when the winning party’s man is chosen… the congress does everything in its power to put a halt to anything that man has promised or even TRIES to do.
if in the next election the OTHER party wins and the congress is different… and so HIS promises go by the wayside too.
it’s a system of checks and balances perhaps. but all too often it results in NOTHING ever being done.
the american people see fit to STILL blame whichever president (of either party) is in office at the time. then they vote the OTHER party in …
and the whole circus starts all over again.
it’s beyond ridiculous now. it’s pathetic.
as an example… a friend of mine blames the president if he’s NOT the one she voted for. as if HE has all the power.
and if he’s the ONE she voted for… and things he promised don’t happen… she blames the CONGRESS. she says THEY have all the power. LOLOL!
Yep, so as I say, don’t pay much attention to political speeches.
I keep thinking of Ashleigh Brilliant’s quote:
And remember the Pearls Before Swine cartoon?
I struggle to not make comments specific to the current political situation. Unfortunately, I’ve come to regret my votes in several presidential elections. Of course, I’m pretty confident I’m right this time… but who knows?
I wasn’t attacking Obama, just trying to point out that kind of rhetoric is hollow. I can’t see either Trump or Clinton giving everyone a chance to succeed.
I took your post the way that you meant it. I had started to comment less generally, but changed it because I’ve decided not to contribute to the online noise about politics. It’s too contentious this time around, too divisive. I value on-line friends on both side, so I just (sometimes) read what they say and seldom comment. If it’s blatantly political, I usually don’t even read it.
Mostly I listen but don’t say much, but Melania borrowing from Michelle when Trump is such an Obama hater was just too funny.
I wish we did have a system where hardworking people had a better chance of getting ahead, but I don’t see either party being willing or able to create that. It’s going to get worse instead of better with all the improvements in robots.
I try very hard to stay out of this political mess, but can’t resist pointing out that Tammy J is correct in saying that a president is stopped in his tracks by congress. Obama has not been able to implement ANYTHING! It has been very frustrating and sad to watch. It’s a dangerous game that Congress has played during the past 8 years, and has resulted in the political outrage you see today.
That’s not true that he got nothing done. What about Obamacare?
This article talks about a BBC documentary about Obama’s legacy. He says it “suggests that Obama will be remembered as a great president and also a tragic one.” The author says Obama made one big mistake, he got into bed with Wall Street. “What he did not do was to think quite big enough, or make a sufficiently radical break with old economic order, or rally the people to resist it. The right ended up articulating many of the frustrations, crowned by Donald Trump. It now falls to Hillary Clinton to learn those lessons, or she will find herself broken by the same reactionary forces.”
As a non American, I am a bystander, just watching the developments with interest and some amusement too.
It’s a real mess, but I imagine your politics isn’t much better.
Me too, Rummuser! At best, I can only have a surface understanding of what’s going on. Thanks for clearing some of it up for me, Jean. From my vantage point, it looks like Congress did everything they could to block him. As for Obamacare—Republicans are threatening to dismantle it if they are in power.
Congress was Democratic until the midterm elections in 2010, then the Republicans came roaring back in the House and reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate. One of the main reasons was people didn’t like the way Obama and the Congress were handling the economy. As usual, “It’s the economy, Stupid!” His overpromising in 2008 may have made things worse for him. See Why Democrats Lost the House to the Republicans.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Obamacare. It will also be interesting to see what happens to the Supreme Court in the future. The Court’s ruling on the Citizens United case removed the limits on what corporations and unions can spend on political campaigns, and that had an effect on the 2010 midterm election too.
The job of bureaucrats is to stay employed. Change, of any kind, is not on their agenda. Politicians come and go but the bureaucrats stay forever. One definition of insanity is continuing to do the the same thing while expecting different results. Why would anyone believe anything in the US is going to change?
I think the world is changing a lot and we won’t be immune from those changes. It won’t be smooth sailing.
The deal with similar speeches…
there was an interesting moment there when Republicans were raving about the speech, they who hate the Obama’s and are so critical of Michelle Obama and then suddenly they find that those were her words originally.
How ironic.
and yes, who cares about the speeches? They are just reciting what the speech writers have written for them.
I have no clue who to vote for. Really.
I don’t like either one of them.
and Obamacare hasn’t helped me at all.
In fact it’s hurt me so….. i just don’t know who.
I’m worried more about how everyone is killing each other here.
Shootings all the time. Tragedies.
People killing innocents, kids in schools.
A few bad cops and now good cops are getting killed.
The racial divide growing wider everyday.
and ISIS recruiting people here to become terrorists.
We have never needed the right person as much as we do now.
So getting back to the speeches… who cares, that’s the least of our problems.
AMEN.
Apparently the reason for the plagiarism was Melania didn’t like what the speechwriters had given her to read, so she had a speechwriter in the Trump organization help her talk about what she believed in. Melania had been inspired by Michelle’s speech, so the phrases crept in. I agree with you that it’s funny because Trump was an Obama hater.
I’m voting for Gary Johnson, not that he has any chance of winning. I agree we really need an outstanding leader right now, but so far no one has appeared.
I agree with you about the killings. There’s no doubt that some cops are bad, but vilifying them all leads to a lot more crime. Why would they risk their lives if most people are against them?
the “leaders” whether they lead or potentially may lead – all have promises of what might happen…
and then they are rebuffed every which way…or something they do get in place is overturned with supposedly something better by the next incumbent…
sometimes they come up with something during their term – our last “something” was the “new flag” – we all know where that went after they spent around NZ$26million on that…
They say what they think will get them elected.
Speeches, speeches. Full of inspiring words and promises, but bearing little relation to what the politicians actually do once they’re in office. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Yes!