Just after Trump played God on the GOP convention stage to a Queen soundtrack, his wife turned out to be his feet of clay, delivering a speech she claimed to have mostly written herself, but which turned out to be partly stolen, and serving to divert media coverage of the gathering’s first night.
The Hill: Melania Trump speech appears to plagiarize Michelle Obama
Melania to NBC before the speech: “I wrote it, with as little help as possible.”
Before that dustup even protesters seemed bored by the GOP Convention’s first night (see Barry below), despite Trump the showman appearing on stage silhouetted by a flood of bright white lights aimed from below. There was some gall in Trump walking to the podium with gay icon Freddie Mercury’s “We Are The Champions” ringing out, considering his party’s anti-LGBT platform and how his wife Melania’s headliner speech left out gays in a litany of all the different types of Americans he would represent.
The Weekly Standard — RNC Speakers: Trump is ‘Sent From God’ and Compared With ‘Messiah’
Dave Barry on lackluster protests: “They were mostly young people carrying signs expressing their opposition to racism, sexism, fascism and of course capitalism, and they were shouting slogans that only they were listening to. They were far outnumbered by the news media and the police, who were busy closing streets so the protesters could pass through, to the annoyance of the actual public.”
Hillary counter-programs on Charlie Rose: “Trump is ‘Most Dangerous Man Ever To Run For President'”
I have been watching the re-cap coverage of the convention…Trump is in big trouble if they think it is essential to shore up the base with a collection of misfits!
And the lord said, let there be light, and there was light, although somewhat occluded by the donald.
Romeo : What light through yonder window breaks ? It is the East, and the sun is a cheeto-like deadbeat.
Fr. Laurence : ‘Tis a cheesy morning in America.
G’night Dog’s Eye.
The creation, plagiarism and Queen. Sheesh. The Cavs should have entered to “We are the Champions” – the crowd would have loved that.
Heileman had a great line, “There’s plagiarism and then there’s moronic plagiarism.”
Scott Baio Isn’t Sorry He Tweeted That Meme Calling Hillary Clinton A C**t
Kristin Salaxy
Sure, Baio the D lister wouldn’t want to be called Politically Correct..
melania “quotes” Michelle.
perfect.
Xrep – You forgot one: A shining Cheeto on a hill.
wapo: Melania Trump’s speech appears to have cribbed from Michelle Obama’s in 2008
SNL should be airing live specials over the summer. Cecily Strong & Darrell Hammond have it made. Their cups runneth over.
One of the ways to avoid being beaten by the system is to laugh at it. (Once again, thank you Peter Cook for that timeless line.)
The use of Queen music was offensive, considering the Candidate, the Party, the Platform. OK, what music would you select that really reflects the GOP 2016?
sjwny, goper theme song? in one word
https://youtu.be/O1cJ8QUZZPE
I’d nominate either Dance of the Swans (which was the default theme for every Universal Horror film made in the 1930s) or Dance of the Cuckoos ( aka The Laurel & Hardy theme.) Cabaret’s “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” would be a natural to close the
RallyConvention.regarding my 6:15 post:
Hillary Clinton Remakes 1964 ‘Confessions of a Republican’ Ad With Same Actor
‘This man scares me,’ William Bogert said of both Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Donald Trump in 2016.
Bogert told Rachel Maddow in May that the views he expressed in the ’64 advertisement were his own.
“When they hired me to begin with, they were going to use my name. … And I said, ‘If you hire me as an actor, I’ll say whatever the hell you want me to say, but if you’re using my name, then it’s got to be stuff that I believe,'” Bogert told Maddow. “There was one thing that I wanted changed, and I don’t remember what it was, but they did make the change.”
Can there be such a thing as plagiarism in politics?
That is such a writers sin of interest only to those in the media who make a living at it.
The rest of us mehh, not so much.
It is a good opportunity to make fun of last night spectacle
It should be Obama taking the lead as it is his wife they stole from.
Just a simple “If you’re gonna steal, steal from the best.” Make it a joke and it will do more damage.
Jack
nbc news:
According to New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer, two sources claim 21st Century Fox co-chairmen Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch and CEO James Murdoch will remove Ailes from his current post of chairman and CEO of Fox News.
James, in particular, believes that Ailes should be asked to resign or be fired this week, the sources added. The elder Murdoch and Lachlan are leaning towards making the decision after the GOP convention.
Fox News did not respond to requests for comment. Parent company 21st Century Fox issued a statement, saying: “This matter is not yet resolved and the review is not concluded.”
patd,
As long as Willie Nelson is on board, go for it 😉 And RIP Patsy Cline.
jack, it wasn’t just the stolen words. when you watch the side-by-side replays, it looks like they might have made mel practice with the michelle vid.
did you catch the manaford mumbling this morning trying to answer charlie rose et al’s questions about it?
Trumps entrance to Queen,
talk about stealing, You got to admit they stole from the best last night. nobody does crazy nutball white trash spectacle better than pro wrestling. From a look around the internet tubes it seemed to get the media types approval , must be a lot of closet wrestling fans out there.
Jack
cleveland plain dealer Terrible start for Paul Ryan and Trump at RNC: Darcy cartoon
Alexandra Petri is on the beat. This is a must read. UPDATE: Oh, for Pete’s sake. As numerous astute online observers have pointed out, a whole paragraph of Melania’s speech appears to have been lifted pretty much verbatim from Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008. Because nothing is allowed to be just partially absurd this election season, it was the section of the speech about values. Few phrases sum up contemporary politics quite so well as the compact oxymoron “plagiarized statement of values.” I would further note that this scandal is, itself, plagiarized from Scott Brown, whose website lifted a values statement from Elizabeth Dole’s website back in the day. I doubt that this will be the nail that finally seals the Trump coffin. but, then again, one should never misunderestimate Americans’ capacity for becoming grossly and disproportionately indignant at something a woman has done wrong. Maybe this will be what… Read more »
Melania Trump reminds me of a replicant from Blade Runner. Implanted memories.
loved the lines at 4:06 minutes in on Colbert’s screed re trumpiness… “truthiness has to feel true. trumpiness doesn’t even have to do that. in fact many trump supporters don’t believe his wildest promises and they don’ t care…”
pogo, thanks for that. really really liked her Few phrases sum up contemporary politics quite so well as the compact oxymoron “plagiarized statement of values.”
Ahhhhh…. I think I’ve finally recovered from my nausea from last night. I know it wasn’t the popcorn.
Seriously… of course Trump made his appearance as a big staged production. What’s really struck me is the blue smoke, the blue Trump signs and his blue tie… is he trying to give us a subliminal message to vote the blue party?
renee, yep, saw the blue smoke, but missed the mirrors… [see the dave barry story that craig linked]
I didn’t watch last night; yesterday afternoon was enough.
Plagiarism doesn’t matter in politics? Ask Joe Biden if that’s true. Poor woman.
What a great gooper start crazy Rudy, the nutcase Benghazi Mom –who by the way her son wasn’t speaking to, and Melania the copycat
I wonder what Joni Earnst is thinking and everyone else who has agreed to speak at this freak show
wapo‘s Meet the artist who gathered 100 naked women outside the Republican National Convention has more about what’s behind those mirrors
Larry Sabato, Unversity of Virginia, on CNN just now:
I wonder what Joni Earnst is thinking ….
Katherine Graham Cracker,
There’s an empty thought bubble if ever I saw one.
Not so funny though that these people have a chance to win. The way this year has gone … who knows. Wonder how we’ll look back at this time in Cleveland next year – with humor or with horror.
There were so many things wrong with last night
total amature hour , I mean really. it was foreign policy night, what is a washed up actor who’s best parts in the last 10 years have been playing the dead guy on CSI doing there? . Is this audition time for the new trump reality show, Donald Trump, Save my Career ?
What is Trump’s wife doing there anyway? being born in another country doesn’t mean you are a foreign policy expert.
And poor Jonie, They tell you you are their rising star and they stick you in like an afterthought.
It was really a cluster f**k last night, these things do have an order of presentation and a nightly message. But when you are clueless you don’t even bother to double check your speeches to see if someone started channeling an important speech somewhere. It does happen.
Jack
checking my facebook feed –hard to tell which thing people disliked the most — the plagiarism the use of We are the Champions
I stole this
Melanoma was born in Plagiaristan
hey, guys, from drumpf’s point of view as has been the case this whole campaign it (plagiarism story) is getting him plenty of free publicity and media coverage of him rather than Hillary. his supporters will just love him the more for it. they’ll think he’s being unfairly picked on by picky intelligentsia types.
Mr. Crawford,
Any insider guesses on who will be the patsy for this?
patd,
Yep. Let the Democrats burn through their $. The Art of the Campaign Deal?
lol
I forgot college professors, they hate plagiarism too. That’s it the other 95% of the world doesn’t care unless they just bought the piece of crap kirkland brand at cosco cause the packaging looks just like really good stuff they had come to enjoy.
In the real world people steal ideas right and left.
The problem is that it is so sloppy and incompetent on the part of the Trump campaign.
If you want to hurt trump start talking about “If he can’t even run a campaign how in the hell can he run this country.
When Trump gets out of his core expertise he makes a total cluster, look at Atlantic city when he thought he could run a casino or Trump U.
Jack
jack, time for toto to pull the curtain on the great! the magnificent! the trumpster of smoke and mirrors!
omg Trump claims Clinton made Melanoma do it
I am beginning to think she did this herself. No professional speech writer would risk such a thing unless it was malice on purpose.
Ms Dallas, I loved your 7:54 post. The Shining Cheeto On A Hill should echo through all the megaphones of history until the last snake oil salesman is hanged. I intend to plagiarize your bon mot vigorously.
This perrenial jokester ain’t laughing. Even if he loses, we will still live in a country that nominated a dangerous fool to be one of two choices for President, and that’s no choice at all. None of this bodes well for democracy or the future, in general.
the evil clintons they even turned Melanoma
she should have stuck with the Whitehouse collection of QVC jewelry
GOP convention staffers are literally throwing up.
Trump kids Tiffany & Donald speak tonight, now feverishly dumping stolen Sasha and Malia passages from their text.