Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Plagiarism or Plea?

One of the big kerfuffles from last night's GOP convention was Melania Trump's speech, which cribbed a lot of content from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic convention. While allegations of plagiarism are being levied at Ms Trump 3.0, I suspect something else is at play here.

I think Melania is getting back at her loutish husband by parroting the words of the wife of a hated rival. Melania has had too much Botox to allow her to blink out "HELP ME" in Morse code, so this is her best outlet for seeking help. It's not plagiarism, it's a plea.

That doesn't explain the Rickroll embedded in her speech, though. She might have been expressing contempt for the convention goers, perhaps for the entire population of a country which would allow her more vulgar half to come alarmingly close to the levers of power... then again, she might be pleading for Rick Astley to save her.

4 comments:

M. Bouffant said...

It is indeed a quandary, & a very quizzical one at that.

Unknown said...

I feel kind of bad for her. She was clearly out of her element but did it anyway, and then for the campaign not to have bothered running her speech through the plagiarism software...

She always looks as though she's trying to read the fifth line on the eye chart.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

It is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma!
~

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

I disagree. I think Josh at TPM has coined a useful meme here: Trump's Razor. Never ascribe to planning or other intelligent action that which can be explained by sheer stupidity/incompetence.

Melanie claims to have written most of the speech. Speechwriters said they had delivered it free of plagiarism. She watched other Potential First Lady speeches, and like what she heard from Mrs. Obama, and then took most of it.

The Trump campaign responds with the Stupid Three Step: Deny. Deflect. Blame somebody else. But now, the late night comedians have latched on and it will become as omnipresent as Gore's Earth Tones episode.

yeah, yeah yeah. Let's focus on the issues. Until you have an actual plan for making the media actually care about issues and report on them, we will use the cudgels we are given. And the demonstration that the Trumpians are incompetent and unable to deal with the massive complex needs of actually running a national campaign will provide a running meme for the next five months. It's an unforced error, a footbullet from a largish weapon. Yeah, yeah, Melania never asked for this and doesn't deserve it; but like Gretchen Carlson, she knew the nature of the viper she was getting into be with....