Clinton camp accuses Obama of plagiarism

MILWAUKEE — When Sen. Barack Obama questioned whether “I Have a Dream” was “just words,” his booming oration prompted big cheers from Wisconsin Democrats but opened the door for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign to accuse him of plagiarism.

The Clinton campaign yesterday said the Illinois Democrat ripped off the lengthy and inspiring passage from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and said it undermines their rival’s credibility.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said Mr. Obama espoused the value and power of words in his remarks, but that the words he used weren’t his own.

Mr. Obama, noting Mrs. Clinton has borrowed some of his key campaign phrases without attribution, said he should have given Mr. Patrick credit but acknowledged they are friends and “trade ideas all the time.”

“I really don’t think this is too big of a deal,” Mr. Obama said. “I was on the stump and … he had suggested that we use these lines, I thought they were good lines.”

Mr. Patrick, an Obama supporter, dismissed the copycat charges as bogus since he has helped the campaign with speechwriting and the two are close friends.

Yesterday’s tussle, complete with video evidence of Mr. Obama and Mr. Patrick that’s likely to be used in an attack ad, smacks of the plagiarism charges that helped sink Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidential candidacy in 1988.

At Saturday night’s Wisconsin Founders Day dinner, Mr. Obama was set to follow Mrs. Clinton and close the Democratic fundraiser with a 2,425-word speech highlighting his record and policy proposals.

Several reporters who usually follow Mrs. Clinton teased that his speech was “boring” and at one point the crowd seemed restless. But toward the close of his more than 40-minute speech, Mr. Obama’s voice rose and he scrapped most of his prepared remarks.

He boomed a response to the Clinton critique of his candidacy as not substantive:

“The most important thing that we can do right now is to re-engage the American people in the process of governance,” he said. “Don’t tell me words don’t matter. ‘I have a dream’ — just words? ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’ Just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself?’ — just words, just speeches?”

That passage was not part of his prepared remarks.

By Sunday night, the Clinton campaign sent reporters a story documenting the section was almost word for word what Mr. Patrick said in response to criticism from then Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healy, a Republican who charged: “All I have to offer is words.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. Just words! We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Just words? Ask not what your country can do for you ask, what you can do for your country. I have a dream, just words,” Mr. Patrick said in October 2006.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who supported Mr. Patrick then and is now a Clinton surrogate, said the speech marked a turning point in the campaign and helped Mr. Patrick win the governorship.

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