Melania Loves Michelle
Everyone I know was semi-impressed with Melania Trump’s speech last night. She did an admirable job for a woman who really doesn’t do public speaking.
The only criticism I heard by the time I went to bed last night was that her speech only highlighted her husband’s bombastic and word salad communications.
This morning there’s some ‘splainin’ to do.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign came under new scrutiny Tuesday after it became apparent that part of Melania Trump’s primetime address Monday night at the Republican National Convention bore conspicuous similarities to a speech delivered by first lady Michelle Obama in 2008 at the Democratic convention.
This morning Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort said it could not possibly in any way, shape, or form be plagiarized for one simple reason —
“She was speaking in front of 35 million people last night, she knew that, to think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”
And the Trumps would never, ever do anything crazy, right?
Chris Christy also poo-pooed the idea that it’s plagiarized. He argued that 93% of the words are different. Yeah, he’s right. Melanie used the term Donald Trump. Michelle Obama never said those words.
Manafort got so riled up after seeing the side-by-side comparison of the speeches that he —- oh, he made headlines with the crazy.
I am having such fun!
Last night my friend Hazel commented sweetly, “She is a lovely woman but she is not an American. Just like his ties – made in China.”
And this I’m adding an hour later —
Mrs. Trump’s “team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking.”
I’m not sure that “fragments” is the word you want to be using here, though I’m sure it’s apt.
1I actually popped some corn before Melanoma’s speech. Unfortunately, I put too much salt on it.
Her accent was so thick that I often couldn’t understand what she was saying, so imagine my surprise this morning when the entire Internet was filled with examples of her stealing parts of Michelle’s speech.
Stephen Colbert is appearing live on his show in NYC during the convention and he is priceless!
The Nats had yesterday off, but are beginning a series with the Dodgers starting tonight. So, I have every reason to not watch any more of that completely unedifying conventions. The commentary afterwards is sensational and better than sitting through that mess.
2Maanfort is as crazy as Trump! Kinda expected his reaction. This plagiarism thingy sets us all up to listen to Trump on the last night and check him for plagiarism. Otherwise, he isn’t worth the time.
3Melania is a Time Lord. Everyone knows she went back to 2007 to write that speech. Moochelle was teh one who stole it!!
4I feel bad for Melania. OTOH, she didn’t have to marry him.
It’s fun watching all the WSJ readers get their morning exercise by trying to contort this into Hillary’s fault. Or just a coincidence that such common platitudes were used; with identical words; in identical order.
I’m assuming that Donnie tried to get a speechwriter on the cheap, so he’d have plenty of money for the cool fog machine. Because with him, it’s always style over substance, dontcha know.
5Mrs. Drumpf claimed that she, herownself, wrote that speech.
6She has also claimed that she graduated from Slovenia University with a degree in architecture. Both statements are outright lies, moron speechwriters wrote the speech and Melania dropped out of college after her freshman year.
Given some of her nudie photos which have popped up on the web, her “modeling” career should be suspect as well. The word porn comes to mind, as I’m sure it does to The Donald. What a great couple…of frauds.
The snacilbupeR convention so far has been sooooo disappointing. Where are my arson fires? Where are my drunken orgies with imported ladies (or imported gentlemen, depending on which way your vine swings) of the evening? Gladiators? GDit I want a spectacle!
7Drumpf Wife looks better with less on. She is way smarter than him. And I would vote for her long before him. Thank you for watching so I didn’t have too’
8I watched about half of that GOP lunatic clusterfock last night off and on (three more nights of this? gaahhhhkkk!), featuring serial delusionary over-emotive braindead RW knaves and fools. They just kept rolling by, screeching and whining incessantly (Rudy 911 was far beyond batshit UV insane, he went into the far gamma ray spectrum).
Then came Melania, magazine centerfold and probable gold digger, who sounded half way sane and reasonable; albeit politically misguided, although certainly loyal. Now we find out it was all just another Trumpian scam, plagiarism.
You cannot trust a one of them.
Should Donnie Dollars become POTU$, just becoming an ex-pat or emigre wouldn’t even save our asses. These people could destroy the entire world. Some of them, the Dominionist types, are actually actively trying to do it, so ‘they’ can be ‘raptured’.
9Man, I’ve been interested in politics a looong time, since the ’50’s when I was an 8 or 10 y/o. It has never ever been this ludicrously, dangerously insane before, not even at the peak of the John Bircher’s drivel.
With today’s ‘interconnectedness’ should these proto-fascists gain enough raw power, you wouldn’t know what hit y’all (and I’m keeping my arms/armament, as a ravin’ librul I’ll go down blazing).
At this point I have to wonder if Trump WANTS to lose.
10@Ralph Wiggam
11Hair Drumpf likely will net more income over the next four years if he loses, IM<HO.
Donnie’s tweet was the icing on the cake!
12Melania claimed to have written the speech herself. She implied that she did it all on her lonesome. She used the words, “very little help.”
So did she make that statement before or after the plagiarism came to light? She might have done better to have kept her mouth shut the second time – as well as the first.
Hmmm. So, maybe some low-level staffer cut and pasted the speech [and Melania took credit for what someone else did] OR Melania cut and pasted it herself.
OK, let’s take her at her word and say she “wrote” it herself. Fine. She has never run for office before or supported someone else who did. Maybe she doesn’t comprehend the strength of the microscope that’s trained on a presidential campaign. So she made a mistake. Fine.
Only – – – what were those values she was talking about IN THE PLAGIARIZED PORTION OF THE SPEECH? Oh, that’s right. “You can reach your dreams if you’re willing to work hard.” But she copied and pasted someone else’s speech in the process. Where’s that “value of hard work,” Melania?
And then I got to wondering: what other thievings might we find if we dug deeper? Say back to some speech given in the 1930’s by some guy running for a state congress? Hey, it WOULD take more work to find writings as old as that to steal from. Not as much work as actually coming up with ideas and writing them down yourself, but a bit more work that stealing something from a speech given by one of the most prominent people in the world, at least.
13A bit OT, but as a recent immigrant myself, I’m a bit taken aback by Hazel’s comment: “She is a lovely woman but she is not an American. Just like his ties – made in China.” Having been born in another country doesn’t automatically make someone ‘not American’ or ‘made in China’, IMO.
14Besides, let’s not forget that all Americans are immigrants:-)
Apart from that, plagiarism is a very, very bad thing to do, believe me.
I think they’re all more horrified by the thought of her sourcing Mrs Obama than they are of being caught plagiarizing.
Although I seem to recall Trump hitting Biden pretty hard on the plagiarism thing, which, fair enough at the time but completely hypocritical now.
Actually, I take that back. Trump claimed that he wrote “The Art of the Deal”, which Schwartz and the publisher both refute. Schwartz said he couldn’t get Trump to sit still for interviews, and that he claimed to remember basically nothing of his life before he was an overnight daddy-funded success.
15Marital bliss in the Drumpf household? Donnie hates all immigrants and yet he is married to one. Go figure. When he goes all Benghazi on immigrants he must use a language other than the five she claims to be fluent in.
Not to be overly/overtly sexist,but if she was forced to cover her head it wouldn’t hurt my fee-fees any. She is not THAT good looking, imho.
16Debbo- here’s to thinking about your upcoming chubber surgery. Cheer up. The day after NFL training camps open for real for the year. Two days later I get my SS check and can go shopping. Win-win. 🙂 🙂
17To paraphrase Lloyd Benson: “Donnie, your wife is no Michelle Obama.”
18I saw the Obama/Trump tweet on Daily Kos. Snopes says it’s a fake.
19There’s enough real stuff to sink the Trump ship, don’t need the made-up stuff.
Frau – I don’t think Hazel meant to be mean to immigrants. She and to make it clear that Trump opposes immigration but both his wife and his ties are immigrants.
By the way, my Momma’s side of the family fought in the American Revolution and built the table that the Declaration of Independence was signed on. My daddy’s side of the family just got here! I am equally as proud of both sides.
20e platypus onion,
21IIRC, not just Melania, but one or both of Herr Drumph’s former spouses were also furriner ‘aliens’ too.
Domestically produced, USDA graded hoofers jes ain’t gud ‘nuf fer ol’ Donny Dollars, strictly high end imported stuff for his majesterty.
I think they are just punking us now.
22So, she wrote the speech with “a little help as possible” (her direct quote.)
No, she wrote the “beautiful speech” with “a team of writers” per Trump senior communication adviser Jason Miller – a skeevy refugee from Team Cruz.
No, per Manafort, another skeevy graduate of Club Roy Cohn, she wrote the speech using common words and ideas, in a random configuration, apparently, that mimicked Michelle’s random use of common words. And this whole thing is Hillary’s fault, although it was the twitter-verse that called Melania out.
Not at all, per Wiskeevonite Reince Priebus, “the speechwriter should be fired” just the one, I guess, which would have been a little help, by herself, with a team, that she knew so well she only read once on the plane to prepare, so she must have written it. But they can’t fire her.
Also, her wonderful privilege of being an American citizen only happened once she became a Trump model, a group known for “benefiting” from the corrupt abuse of the H1-B visa program, and only becoming a citizen AFTER marrying the most sexually insecure man on the planet who also happens to be the same age as her actual father.
23Who really cares where she’s from? She used someone else’s words without credit. They use someone else’s music without permission. Get how this is trending?
I learned this sometime ago. It’s the basis for all scientific and intellectual inguiry:
Once is an occurrence.
Twice is a coincidence.
Three times is a pattern.
Listen closely. Watch closely. See the pattern?
24I didn’t realize Marla Maples was an immigrant, and to clarity, I believe that both Ivanna and Melania came here legally. Melania was assisted in her pursuit of a green card by her Italian “benefactor”. Nevertheless, it’s what you do HERE that counts, and both Obamas have garnered more academic laurels and better public lives.
25Her speech sounded to me like someone handed her a script and told her to get up there and look good and sound earnest. She appears to me to be a woman who is told what to do, what to wear, and what to say.
26I want a House investigation into Melania’s speech. Multiple House investigations.
And a royalty check for Michelle.
27Stephen Colbert’s show all week starts with an hilarious recap of the Repug convention. Last night, Jon Stewart even showed up for a bit, pretending to be shocked that Drumpf was going to be the Kreepuglican candidate and spewing the drink he had just taken all over Colbert. Later Colbert returned the favor.
28He also showed the laughable entrance Drumpf made, complete with fog and the song “We Are the Champions” playing for the crowd. This thing is a complete farce.
Did the Trump campaign get Rick Astley’s approval for their plagiarism of the lyrics from ‘Never gonna give you up’? I know they didn’t get permission for their use of ‘We Are The Champions’ — Queen’s guitarist, Brian May, specifically requested that it not be used some time ago.
It’s a three-ring circus without the talent or hard work.
29At JAKvirginia:
And, so long as were counting, here’s another [though I’m betting the number is far higher than #4]:
Remember Trump’s congratulatory tweet to his wife?
http://tinyurl.com/h84cqyf
And another thought: I’m watching the coverage of The Speech. And the dissection leads me to speculate: could the Trump campaign have been infiltrated by a mole? Or more than one? Someone [or several someones] actively sabotaging his campaign would certainly explain a whole heck of a lot of the past year.
Just a thought.
30Melania was also born a commie. How can that not be challenged by the party of being challenged morally and intellectually?
31When Melania says she wrote the speech with “as little help as possible.” Apparently as little as possible requires a lot of help, mostly from Michelle Obama.
32Frau Free-you are,of course correct, but don’t forget Drumpf and his feud with the American born judge of Mexican heritage that Drumpf has disparaged on numerous occasions as being a foreigner and incapable of passing judgement on Drumpf.
33“I knew 93% of nothing about the George Washington Bridge closure in advance.” CC
34at JanK: right you are. Sorry I included it in my previous comment.
The second half still stands, however.
35Melania has responded: “These accusations of plagiarism are not only hurtful to me, but they are hurtful to my children Sasha and Malia.”
BTW, I plagiarized that from someone’s tweet.
36Cheryl –
37Now that’s what I call REAL funny!
@ Two Crows . . . I agree with the thought that there must be a mole who is sabotaging his campaign. I mean, what else would you think with the idiotic examples recently, i.e. initial T penetrating the P . . why didn’t someone see that and stop it. Perhaps they’re so underpaid they’re getting even.
38@ JaneE:
I’m thinking that the artist who drew up the logo may have, halfway through the process, realized that Trump was unlikely to pay for the service. So . . . .
Last night’s speech was SUCH an unforced error, a mole seems to be the only possible explanation.
39Cheryl-that was hilarious and I took it upon myself to share it with friends at DFP. Please accept thanks for yourself and whomever you plagiarized it from.
40Huh! I just keep coming up with more thoughts on this. Not to say there’s not more heat than light here but still – –
1] Chris Christie came out with, “Welllll, 93% of Melania’s speech wasn’t a carbon copy of Michelle Obama’s speech,” thus tacitly admitting that the other 7% WAS.
2] Chris Christie says there are no hard feelings about the fact that he was passed over for Veep.
2 a] Really, Chris? NO hard feelings? Are you sure
about that?
3] Chris Christie made an speech at the last GOP convention during which he managed to not mention Mitt Romney by name.
4] Chris Christie is scheduled to make a speech tonight sometime between 6 and 7 PM.
5] I’ve got my popcorn popper on a timer set for 6.
41Thanks epo.
I’m watching the snacilbupeR convention tonight and it’s very entertaining. Scumpf made a short speech from his home tonight. He was squinting so hard at the teleprompter he looked like a bright light was glaring into his eyes. (That would be the only bright light in the snacilbupeR universe.) Scumpf was obviously on a very, very short leash.
42Ok, so I like to stir the pot every now and the with my republican friends/acquaintances on Facebook. I posted a funny meme about other quotes that Melania “allegedly” said. I’m dismayed at the vitriol thrown back at me over this meme from so-called friends. This election’s gonna get real ugly. And no, I didn’t delete it either.
43The mole sabotaging Drumpf’s dream of world domination is none other than HRC! She’s everywhere. She’s everywhere.
44In the Rethug Universe, this is just a short News Cycle Snafu to be gotten through, It shall only be plagiarism for a short while. Once Mein Drumpf is elected, all things Obama shall be scrubbed from the record, and then those words will belong to the White Wifey. SMH
45Y’all, I think it’s nice to know that those terrible, horrible, evil Commies we were taught to fear fear fear had family values and good work ethics too. Well, that’s what she said.
46A post WWII De Gaulle style of governance would not have worked here then, and it has even less of a chance today. Then again, the Drumpf family is more in style with a post WWII Republic of the Philippines Islands. While Donnie and the kids do not rise to the level of the shrewd intelligence of Ferdinand Marcos, Melania sure rang all the Imelda bells with her political debut.
47“Melania”opened Colbert’s show last night.
https://youtu.be/Wh1wctQNKRM
48@ daChipster#23- dRUMPf may not be as well-heeled as he’d have everyone believe,but he’s well-heeled enough to buy fall guys and cut-out men. I have the feeling someone is going to take it in the neck for Melanoma.
49PKM, please correct your quote to Lloyd Bentsen….it needs to be shared.
50