As Melania said in her purloined speech, the Trumps have sought to pass on their values of hard work & integrity https://t.co/3nBxsV8LYK
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 20, 2016
Obviously, the story of the morning is the controversy surrounding Melania Trump plagiarizing Michelle Obama in her convention speech, which creates an interesting test for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. A professional operation knows how to deal with incidents like these effectively, This operation doesn’t. Paul Manafort responded to the controversy on CNN on Tuesday morning, saying “there is no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech.”…. “These were common words and values, and she cares about her family,” Manafort said. In case this weren’t quite bonkers enough, Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, added, “This is, once again, an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down.”
In most cases when someone engages in plagiarism, they’re usually smart enough to at least attempt to camouflage their dishonesty. In the case of whoever’s responsible for Melania Trump’s speech, it would be difficult to believe even that much effort when into it. Whole sentences were lifted from a speech give by Michelle Obama, and I’ve heard them played back at the same time. The similarities can’t credibly be passed off as mere coincidence. Whoever wrote Mrs. Trump’s speech is guilty of plagiarism…but instead of the campaign accepting responsibility and apologizing, which may have dampened the controversy, they’re playing the victim card…and blaming Hillary Clinton. I’m not certain it’s even possible to be more pathetic and immature.
This strategy alone should be enough to raise some serious red flags for voters. When a candidate’s wife gives a speech filled with stolen words and ideas, it can and probably should be taken as a sign of laziness, that they can’t be bothered to formulate and articulate their own thoughts and plans. In the case of the Trump campaign, that’s not surprising…because thus far the candidate has spoken in grand, sweeping platitudes while providing little in the way of specifics.
Worse, the campaign’s reaction to what seems patently obvious betrays a lack of integrity and professionalism. The Trump campaign reflect the candidate: undisciplined, lazy, intellectually dishonest, and really well-versed only in the tactics of bullying. Paul Manafort’s pathetic swipe at Hillary Clinton is reflective of a candidate who by his own estimation has never failed and believe his ignorance and “common sense” to be as good as or better than anyone else’s knowledge.
I have no problem with honest mistakes: own it, apologize for it, move on, try to do better and learn what lessons you can. Things happen, balls get dropped- just admit your screwups and be done with it. No reasonable person expects perfection…but neither should they be expected to tolerate and condone lies, cheap personal attacks, and the denial of what anyone with half a brain knows to be true. Manafort’s pathetic attempts at deflecting blame only betrayed what’s long been apparent: that the Trump campaign is a reflection of the candidate himself- a crude, arrogant, bully for whom facts and integrity are merely inconveniences.
Granted, it’s only July; there’s still time for the Trump campaign to get their $#!& together…because if you can’t run a campaign, how in the world are you going to convince voters you can run America?
