Dr. J.'s 'He Really Said That': Howard Wolfson Calls Out Barack Obama as a Plagiarist

On "Morning Joe" on MSNBC today, without referring to the specific texts that he quoted, Howard Wolfson, media director for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, continued to call out Sen. Barack Obama as a plagiarist. He noted that Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, a political supporter and long-time friend and colleague of Sen. Obama, had used the same quotes in a speech that Sen. Obama did. "This amounts to a major crack in the Sen. Obama's credibility," Mr. Wolfson said, again without referring to the specific famous historical quotes that the Senator had used.

Mr. Wolfson then went further, announcing that today four suits for plagiarism were being lodged against Sen. Barack Obama, by Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy, along with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., all of whom Mr. Wolfson has already resurrected. In doing so, he noted that Sen. John McCain has resurrected Rev. Jerry Falwell to provide him with an endorsement and that Sean Hannity was doing his level best to resurrect Ronald Reagan so that he could once again run for President. (In a sidebar, Wolfson noted that Hannity has noted that since the current Administration had already ignored so many provisions of the Constitution, there is no reason why the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution could not be ignored in the case of the Great Reagan.) But, Wolfson said, he has outdone both of those worthies.

Of course it was Thomas Jefferson who wrote the statement that Sen. Obama lifted from the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident," Franklin Delano Roosevelt who spoke those stirring words, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," John F. Kennedy who uttered the great call to the American people, "Do not ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who proclaimed that "I have a dream."

The suits will be filed today in State Courts in Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where the campaign would be asking for very quick rulings (in the case of Wisconsin, by this afternoon, of course). Wolfson was absolutely sure that this move would show the power of the Clintons (on the resurrection front) and bring back to her camp those voters who believe in such things. Asked if the campaign was not grasping at straws by making such a ganze megillah out of something that politicians do every day, quoting from the all-time great statements and speeches by our nation's all-time great leaders, Wolfson said: "We're not grasping at straws; we are simply eating whatever lines are fed us."

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY), a weekly Contributing Author for the Web zine The Political Junkies.net; a Special Contributing Editor for Cyrano's Journal Online; and an invited contributor to the Web log The Daily Scare.