Then be consistent. Hillary has been lifting other people's stuff all over the place.

Obama was not trying to excuse or downplay the act of "plagiarism". The Obama speech comments at issue were not "plagiarism". It's as simple as that. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), plagiarism is defined as stealing or passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own, or using another's production, without crediting the source. This is not what Obama did. He did not use the words of Deval Patrick (Governor of Massachusetts, one of the co-chairs of his campaign, and a friend who, according to Obama, suggested Obama use the words at issue in a few recent speeches) with any consideration as to garnering personal credit (or any derived benefit from such credit) for the original idea to express the particular sentiments in the manner expressed. The point was merely to express the sentiment in an effective way. To equate this with lifting text from someone else's previously written material for use in a college paper for academic credit is an error. By the way, Clinton's touching "this election is bigger than the candidates" moment at the end of the debate was paraphrased rather tightly from a comment by former candidate John Edwards at the end of a debate in December 2007.

definition. Borrowing memes in politics is not plagiarism. It's amplification. A writer wants their ideas to be accredited to herself for intellectual pride and financial reasons. A politicians wants their ideas to spread like wildfire. Considering that the person who originally wrote the passages basically rewrote them for Obama, I can't say this plagiarism.

Seriously, it's like arguing that Joss Whedon "plagiarized" himself by echoing a scene in X-Men II that he wrote for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I voted for Nixon with my first vote, and every Republican since. I live in a red state with two Republican Senators and a Republican Congressman. I attend church with my family, am one of those people who struggles with the abortion issue but ultimately believe we must honor the woman's life choices first, because parents always have to make choices for their children and if they are not ready for a child, it is better to wait until they are. I firmly believe in contraception and sex ed so that fewer women face the difficult decision to terminate an early pregnancy.

I say all of this because I want the anonymous writer above to know I'm about as conservative as they come, though I know the pro-life zealots will come after me for my opinion. Anonymous, whoever you are and wherever you live, you just keep drinking the Kool Aid that says you can win, because I, along with many of my friends are very excited by Barack Obama, and as a woman, I wouldn't mind voting for Hillary Clinton over John McCain, though I find her a bit less exciting.

This election will not be decided on labels, voting records, or experience. George Bush had the right label, was right on all the issues, and had the right experience as Governor of a large state -- and I voted for him twice, regretfully -- but he was all wrong. I'm paying more attention to politics than I ever have before because I'm so disgusted by what has happened these past few years. Many of my friends are too. You are nuts if you think this election is going to be like anything we've ever seen before, and this elephant -- with my long memory -- will be voting for donkeys for the first time in my life. The party I thought I knew is over.