Elizabeth Edwards: Obama Is a Copycat

[durrrty libby]

Why mince words? Just say it.....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/08/elizabeth_edwards_obama_is_a_c.html


"Aspiring first lady Elizabeth Edwards is accusing Sen. Barack Obama of lifting her husband's best lines, in particular, the phrase "audacity of hope."

In an interview with the Progressive magazine, Edwards says:

"You listen to the language of what people say, particularly Obama, who seems to be using a lot of John's 2004 language, which is maybe not surprising since one of his speechwriters was one of our speechwriters, his media guy was our media guy. These people know John's mantra as well as anybody could know it. They've moved from 'hope is on the way' to 'the audacity of hope.' I'm constantly hearing things in a familiar tone."

Audacity of hope ... It does have a nice ring. Does Edwards have the trademark on it to prove Obama is ripping him off?
Not if you ask the Obama camp, which had no formal response to Mrs. Edwards's comment but pointed out Obama's history with the phrase.

The junior senator from Illinois referenced "audacity of hope" in his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father." The line, they said, was taken from a sermon preached by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright titled "The Audacity to Hope.

Furthermore, as recounted in a Christian Science Monitor article last month, "Wright impressed Obama, and by 1988 the younger man found himself in the pews, listening to parishioners clap and cry out as Wright spoke of 'the audacity of hope."

[tyne]

1. Looks like

Elizabeth (bless her heart) was wrong too.

[TwilightGardener]

2. You should read your own article.

[TheWraith]

3. My opinion of Liz just went down.

Trying to claim originality on the word "hope" in politics? Nice. :sarcasm:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. read all about it....get here folks........Elizebeth was just thrown under the Obama bus

[TheDebbieDee]

22. That article was published Aug 14, 2007..........

It might mean a lot more if the article was recent.

[durrrty libby]

30. It shows a long standing pattern and lack of character

[TheDebbieDee]

47. Okay, I get it.....Thanks for pointing that out.

[JackORoses]

72. it shows that you are as durrrty as your candidate

[Moochy]

90. no doubt

one of the worst

[earthlover]

78. As for character, passsing this off as if it were recent reflects on character...bad character

[Snotcicles]

81. We are surrounded by tricksters. nt

[stillcool]

100. What????

Audacity of hope ... It does have a nice ring. Does Edwards have the trademark on it to prove Obama is ripping him off?

Not if you ask the Obama camp, which had no formal response to Mrs. Edwards's comment but pointed out Obama's history with the phrase.

The junior senator from Illinois referenced "audacity of hope" in his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father." The line, they said, was taken from a sermon preached by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright titled "The Audacity to Hope."

Furthermore, as recounted in a Christian Science Monitor article last month, "Wright impressed Obama, and by 1988 the younger man found himself in the pews, listening to parishioners clap and cry out as Wright spoke of 'the audacity of hope."

As the Chicago Tribune wrote in January, Obama based his 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wright's "Audacity to Hope" sermon.

In His Candidate’s Voice

The speech lit a fire. Meet Obama's editor.
By Richard Wolffe
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 7:22 PM ET Jan 6, 2008

Jon Favreau has the worst and the best job in political speechwriting. His boss is a best-selling author who doesn't really need his help, having written the 2004 speech that catapulted him onto the national stage. At the same time, the same boss also happens to be capable of delivering a speech in ways that can give his audience the goosebumps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What is your theory of speechwriting?" Obama asked.

"I have no theory," admitted Favreau. "But when I saw you at the convention, you basically told a story about your life from beginning to end, and it was a story that fit with the larger American narrative. People applauded not because you wrote an applause line but because you touched something in the party and the country that people had not touched before. Democrats haven't had that in a long time."

The pitch worked. Favreau and Obama rapidly found a relatively direct way to work with each other. "What I do is to sit with him for half an hour," Favreau explains. "He talks and I type everything he says. I reshape it, I write. He writes, he reshapes it. That's how we get a
finished product.

"It's a great way to write speeches. A lot of times, you write something, you hand it in, it gets hacked by advisers, it gets to the candidate and then it gets sent back to you. This is a much more intimate way to work."

Some speeches are much more the product of the candidate himself. Obama e-mailed Favreau his draft of his announcement speech in Springfield, Ill., at 4 a.m. on the morning of the campaign launch last February.

Now Favreau has his own team: Adam Frankel, a 26-year-old who worked with Ted Sorensen on his memoirs, and Ben Rhodes, a 30-year-old who worked with Lee Hamilton on the 9/11 commission's report.

Together they had just three weeks to work on Obama's game-changing speech at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa and even less time to work on Obama's victory speech last week. Weaving together lines from previous speeches—and even Obama's books—the team now knows the themes and language that reflect the candidate's voice.

"Even if we had finished third, we would go on to New Hampshire," says Favreau of the victory speech plan. "I had a winning and a keep-fighting speech, but in the end they weren't that different. The message out of Iowa was one of unity and reaching out across party lines. We knew we were going to do well with independents, young people and first-time voters. We knew the message was similar to what he said at the 2004 convention."

The result was a speech with a light touch on the most striking point about Obama's victory: the historic nature of a black candidate's win in the almost entirely white state of Iowa. "The first line was simply, 'They said this day would never come'," says Favreau. "Even when we do speeches to African-American crowds, it's hinted at and it's understood. It's not hammered over the head."

So how hard is it to write for someone who has written his own books and speeches to critical acclaim? "People say that, but it's actually a dream come true," says Favreau. "You always hope that the person can match the lofty moment that the writer dreams up. To have someone who can do that makes it a joy to work with him."

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756

[K Gardner]

24. NO, she was not. The OP is misquoting an old article that does NOT refer to today's

manufactured bullcrap. Read, people. Read.

[durrrty libby]

33. There is no "misquoting" and it shows a pattern and lack of character

[K Gardner]

36. Obama wrote his book in 1995. Edwards started his campaign in 2003. Who copied who???

[rinsd]

42. There's no misquote.

You can take issue with what Elizabeth said but the OP put the whole quote there from the article, uses the article's title and even included the Obama campaign's response.

[rodeodance]

32. right before our eyes. Shameful

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

44. ELIZABETH EDWARDS DID NOT SAY THAT - read the original article

NO WHERE IN THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE DID ELIZABETH EDWARDS ATTACK OR CRITICIZE BARAK OBAMA.
The title to the article infers that Elizabeth Edwards said this bullshit, but she didn't.

THIS IS JUST ANOTHER CLINTON EFFORT TO CREATE MORE DIVISION.

Here is the Washington Post article link:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/08/elizabeth_edwards_obama_is_a_c.html

Here is the original article that the the Washington Post writer(?) hack Mary Ann Akers
referred to with her gossup item

http://www.progressive.org/mag_intv0807

Edwards: John gave a speech at the DNC meeting saying we don’t need to reinvent our party; we just need to remember who we are. And who we are is the party of working people, including people who want to work and can’t, people who have worked and are trying to retire. That’s who we are and have always been. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that. It’s easy to get misled with the DLC mantra “love the worker, love the employer.” The employers can pretty much take care of themselves. So as a party our job is to give voice to those people who don’t have a powerful voice. Unless that translates into votes or contributions, it turns out a lot of Democrats just ignore those people. They use language about working class people, but they are not out there with them. They use language about the immorality of poverty, but they are not out there. They generally support unions, but they are not walking picket lines. And so the difference it seems to me is not between old and new Democrats but between actual Democrats and rhetorical Democrats.

Sometimes it seems we have these beliefs but it turns out it’s like a Hollywood set: It’s all façade and there’s no guts behind it. You listen to the language of what people say, particularly Obama, who seems to be using a lot of John’s 2004 language, which is maybe not surprising since one of his speechwriters was one of our speechwriters, his media guy was our media guy. These people know John’s mantra as well as anybody could know it. They’ve moved from “hope is on the way” to “the audacity of hope.” I’m constantly hearing things in a familiar tone.

This is just more shit and crap flung by the Clinton monkeys.

[Sapphocrat]

55. And this negates the OP how, exactly?

By the way, your candidate's first name is spelled "Barack."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

69. the title is misleading, it puts words in Elizabeths mouth

and no decent journalist misleads that way.

Its possible an editor twisted the title that way, and perhaps the writer isn't to blame,
but its a misleading and deceiving tactic.

This is a case of where the media serves its corporate masters too well.

[Sapphocrat]

82. I wasn't even paying attention to the OP title, but the quote.

And the quote sounds pretty clear to me.

[murbley40]

107. If your beloved Obama is elected.....

Who the hell are you, his supporters going to blame his screw ups on then?

[lisainmilo]

112. Agreed

it's about tugging at the hearts of the Edwards folks, in a very divisive manner. :(

[Sapphocrat]

52. You knew that was coming.

I'm only surprised it took three whole posts to spell it out.

[in_cog_ni_to]

61. One more down and counting!

By the time the Obama crowd is finished, no one will be left to support their plagiarizing candidate!

Such a shame. Elizabeth is a FANTASTIC lady!

[Beausoir]

74. Yep. There goes Elizabeth Edwards..under the wheels of the Obamanation bus.

These people are truly scum.

Last week it was Chelsea Clinton. Now it's Elizabeth Edwards.

[earthlover]

79. So you call people "scum" and yu don't think you are throwing people under the bus?

Typical of the Hillary Herd....

[Name removed]

87. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mzmolly]

104. That is not a quote from Edwards, it's a paraphrase.

If you read the article, EE says that JE opened the same conversation in 04 that Obama is continuing today.

[libertee]

4. Obama ..The Cliche' Man...

[durrrty libby]

9. Sound Bite Central. I can do it too. All Fluff No Stuff

[Moochy]

92. You can do it too!

Yes You Can! Just visit your favorite hatred-talking-points website and you are off! Goooo DURTY! It's your last chance!

[rinsd]

5. Oh no....are we going to have to add Elizabeth to the list of fallen DU heroes?

[MadBadger]

11. No, but I'm going to add the OP for not being able to read.

And yes, Elizabeth Edwards was wrong here.

[rinsd]

16. OP uses the article's title and included the reference to Obama's book.

I don't think the problem is the OP.

[rodeodance]

35. so, OP can't read but you judged her: "And yes, Elizabeth Edwards was wrong here."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

45. divisive Clinton effort fails again - Elizabeth never said what the WaPo Title says

Clintons desperate, can't win on merits, must attack and smear by any means possible.

[Sapphocrat]

59. doublethink

"The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth." -- George Orwell, 1984

[NMMNG]

54. Yep

They'll tear her to shreds and shit on the remains much like they did with Maya Angelou and anybody else who dared speak well of HRC or ill of St. Obama.

[MadBadger]

6. You should learn to read

"he junior senator from Illinois referenced "audacity of hope" in his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father." The line, they said, was taken from a sermon preached by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright titled "The Audacity to Hope."

[durrrty libby]

15. He doesn't discriminate. He steals from everyone.

[K Gardner]

19. Posting name so very appropriate.

[Little Star]

20. Ha! Oh so true.

[AX10]

77. True.

He's an equal opportunity thief.

[jackson_dem]

102. lol

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

53. Does that mean Edwards stole from Wright?

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. well, if this proves anything

it proves that it's the messenger, not the message, that matters.

people trust Obama when he says virtually the same things Edwards said before. Obama is just flat-out more believable and likeable. I'm sure that irks the Edwards people a lot.

[graywarrior]

8. Give me a fucking break.

I expect this from Lou Dobbs, but not from another democrat. This is fucking ridiculous!

[Reader Rabbit]

10. This article is from last summer. How is it relevant now?

For that matter, why should we care?

[jackson_dem]

21. Because Obama is copying Deval Patrick lock, stock and barrel

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x95061

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x94969

[K Gardner]

38. Guess you didn't see this:

Mike and Noam have already done a great job explaining the ridiculousness of the Clinton campaign's charge that Obama plagiarized from Deval Patrick, but I thought I'd add one more point. Obama's already on record as admitting he borrows lines from Patrick (and vice versa). Stumping in New Hampshire last December, Obama said:

"But you know in the end, don’t vote your fears. I’m stealing this line from my buddy (Massachusetts Gov.) Deval Patrick who stole a whole bunch of lines from me when he ran for the governorship, but it’s the right one, don’t vote your fears, vote your aspirations. Vote what you believe."

[jackson_dem]

41. Did he say he "borrowed" his entire campaign?

Take away "hope and change", "politics of hope", "ending politics as usual", "movement for change", "uncommon leader" and what is Obama left with? Democratic boilerplate.

[Garbo 2004]

65. Damn your right! "I represent real hope for change." "No experience is better than the wrong kind

of experience." "The Man From Hope."

Oh, that wasn't Obama, that was Bill Clinton, 1992.

[rodeodance]

28. Why is he old RW slime related to the Clinton's relevant? we see it all the time on DU!

[rove karl rove]

13. What is the point?

So?Can a phrase be copyrighted? Is there anything left to say that's never been said before?

[Jamastiene]

26. Google is your friend.

You're fired. -Trademark held by Donald Trump

[JKaiser]

14. THiS IS TRUE! OBAMA IS A COPYCAT. HE copies other people's rhetoric

[ProSense]

17. Elizabeth Edwards on Hillary's healthcare plan: she ripped us off

Video: Elizabeth Edwards on Hillary's plan, she ripped us off. She also rips the Clintons on NAFTA, the failed healthcare plan of the 90s, etc.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

71. "Edwards blasts Clinton" .. "Hillary.. copied her husband's health care proposal"

Mrs. Edwards on Clinton plan 5:54
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Edwards, tells CNN that Sen. Hillary Clinton copied her husband's health care proposal.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2007/09/20/elizabeth.edwards.blasts.clinton.cnn

[K Gardner]

18. AUGUST 2007 ! This is a surmise taken from an article in Progressive Mag and refers to AUDACITY

of HOPE.. not the current argument. God, how dishonest can you people get?? Elizabeth said the theme of "hope" sounded familiar from John's 2004 campaign.

Obama wrote "The Audacity of Hope" TEN YEARS before Edwards' campaign.

Good freakin grief.

[Jamastiene]

31. Bill Clinton ran on HOPE 2 years before Obama's book. n/t

[K Gardner]

34. Yeah.. I think its a common theme :-)

[rodeodance]

23. based on comments above Eliz goes the way of Joe Wilson--!!

[CyberPieHole]

25. K&R...glad to see some people are exposing Obama for the charlatan that he is...n/t

:kick:

[K Gardner]

29. Glad to see Hillary supporters STILL don't bother to read. Demographics matter.

[rodeodance]

64. an ms. ELITIST speaks. You have a have of broad brushing Clinton voters as being stupid Shame on you

[K Gardner]

27. Thanks for this. Will mail to Elizabeth and see if she appreciates being used in a

smear campaign by Clinton supporters on the basis of an article written last summer. Maybe that will help them decide WHO they want to endorse.

[durrrty libby]

37. Happy to help. He was a thief then and now. I'm sure Elizabeth will agree

[K Gardner]

39. Audacity of Hope, written 1995. Edwards campaign, 2003. Which came first?

[durrrty libby]

43. Your getting mixed up with all his thievery. That phrase was stolen from

someone else

And much of his book is not exactly true. A liar through and through. He's a total sham.

Example:"“Mr. Obama’s account of his younger self and drugs, though, significantly differs from the recollections of others who do not recall his drug use. That could suggest he was so private about his usage that few people were aware of it, that the memories of those who knew him decades ago are fuzzy or rosier out of a desire to protect him, or that he added some writerly touches in his memoir to make the challenges he overcame seem more dramatic.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/09obama.html?scp=1&sq=barack+obama+high+school+hawaii+occidental&st=nyt

[K Gardner]

56. Obama is a "liar and sham"? Why, I think that's slander. Or libel. Or both.

[durrrty libby]

57. or TRUTH

[Seeker30]

94. You have to personally know someone for it to be slander

Or did you not learn that in class today?

[Moochy]

103. Good thing you hillbots never get out of the house

makes it easier to lie about people and say "it's not slander"

[Garbo 2004]

62. Dupe

[Garbo 2004]

63. "stolen" or "inspired by?" It wasn't exact. And oh yes, the NYT's piece where since they couldn't

find people to say he was more than an occasional user, the author speculates based on no evidence whatsoever, that Obama may have exaggerated, among other options. The words "liar" and "sham" are your own, not the NYT's.

By your standard, Hillary "stole" her health care plan from Edwards, "stole" her recent "agent of change" campaign meme from Obama, and derivatively adopted "Yes we will" campaign slogan from Obama's "Yes we can." As well as "stealing" lines from Bill's speeches who in turn "stole" from others before him.

[durrrty libby]

66. Get off the Hopium. It kills brain cells

[Garbo 2004]

68. Unlike you I don't cheerlead for any candidate. I detest Rovian tactics, whoever uses them.

I've also criticized Obama's campaign, for example, for their sleazy "Harry and Louise" health care mailer and defended Hillary's health care plan. It ain't great but the better of the two. They're both subject to honest criticism in my view, but there's very little of that here on either side.

Of course the idea that anyone can be other than a "Hillbot" or "Obamabot" must be beyond your capacity to consider, given the consistent nature of your posts.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

73. pay attention, Elizabeth accused Hillary of stealing health care plan from John

read the other messages, or go here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2007/09/20/elizabeth.edwards.blasts.clinton.cnn

[rinsd]

40. LOL, you think Elizabeth is gonna care about a GDP pissing match?

I think she has more important things to deal with don't you?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

46. make sure you mail her the ENTIRE thread

[tyne]

48. Good idea

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

49. Amen. Elizabeth is too gracious to have her words twisted like this

This is the problem - maybe Edwards should just say he isn't endorsing anyone,
since the Clintons are going to manipulate anybody and everybody around.

I realize he just wants to bring the best out of both candidates, i.e steer them
more to addressing poverty, but looks like Clinton can't take the high road.

[Maribelle]

51. How were her words twisted?

?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

75. she didn't level an accusation against Obama, but she has accused Hillary of stealing ideas

The title of the OP from the WaPOO was not Elizabeth's words, but attributed a thought
or idea to her that she did not make or endorse.

Its misleading and deceptive.

Many suckers will read the title and not all of the story, and they
will assume that the writer was honest and accurately represented what Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth Edwards is a classy, decent and gracious person who doesn't go around
launching negative attacks like that.

[Beausoir]

98. Umm...you know nothing about Elizabeth Edwards. And you rpathetic patronizing attitude toward her

speaks volumes about Obamanation.

[Maribelle]

50. She might not think it's a smear. She might think it's the truth.

Dear Elizabeth has strong shoulders, you know.

[K Gardner]

58. She's also a tad smarter than the average Hillary supporter, judging from this thread and the

recurring bullshit spewed here today.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

76. and she did not say what the OP title attributes to her

thats the problem.

The WaPOO story is mere gossup, the title is made up - Elizabeth did not say
those words.

She has too much class and grace to say things like that.

[murbley40]

108. Oh yea!

that would be in keeping with the way the Obama people do business1

[Marie26]

60. I totally agree

The plagiarism charge is silly; it isn't plagiarism, it's recycling.

[Cameron27]

70. Or repackaging.

[Marie26]

84. It's really Axelrod's words, Axelrod's themes.

I feel like people are missing the point. Obama is all about the marketing - which is about having the right slogans, the right packaging. Marketers want to inspire warm, fuzzy feelings about the product by evoking different archetypes and icons. And that's exactly what Axelrod's done with Obama. He managed Deval Patrick's campaign, and now he's managing Obama's campaign. So it's really not plagarism at all - the same manager is striking the same themes & using the same marketing techniques. Even "Yes We Can" came from other Axelrod campaigns. It's sort of his signature slogan. So basically Axelrod repackages slogans & speeches that have worked in past campaigns & recycles them for this campaign.

[Skip Intro]

67. Obama: "we didn't steal it from John Edwards, we stole it from the Reverend."

:rofl:

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Garbo 2004]

83. The article in OP is from August 2007 & the title is not what Elizabeth Edwards said.n/t

[11 Bravo]

86. Wow, more uplifting and unifying rhetoric from supporters of the "Candidate of Hope"..

[Beausoir]

89. More scum from camp Obama. Last week it was Chelsea, this week it's Elizabeth Edwards.

Obama scum.

[Hobarticus]

93. Classy, hopeful, and change-y.

[krabigirl]

95. LOL hi new ignoree!

[demo dutch]

85. She's right

[FrenchieCat]

88. The blowback on this is what is gonna hurt!

http://www.oliverwillis.com/archives/2008/02/18/clintons-plagiarism-charge-fal/

[Johnny__Motown]

91. It looks like Edwards stole "audacity of hope" from Obama, if you read the article

[indimuse]

109. Obama took the title of his more recent book, The Audacity of Hope, from the first sermon :by Wright

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<,snip>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Obama took the title of his more recent book, The Audacity of Hope, from the first sermon he heard preached by Wright, whom Obama met while working in Chicago

as a community organizer…

If Wright’s rhetoric costs Obama some votes, others believe that would be more than offset by voters moved by Obama’s ability to bring religion back into the liberal

political message

Obama's Pastor is "A TOTAL HATER"
Obama's Pastor sounds more like a hate spewing imam. I am shocked this hasn't gotten real media play (oh yeah, it's Obama.) The more you peel back the layers of

the Obama onion, the more rotten it is at its core. Obama's checkered resume. Mickey Kaus in Slate; hat tip Ed Lasky

Old CW: Not Black Enough; New CW: What's All This Black Business? Tom Maguire wonders why Jodi Kantor's front-page NYT piece on Barack Obama's pastor,

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, hasn't generated more controversy. Having now read it, I tend to agree. I'd certainly be more comfortable with a presidential nominee whose

main spiritual man 1) hadn't visited Col. Qaddafi (even back in '84); 2) talked less about "oppression" and "this racist United States of America;" 3) when discussing

the solution to poverty, talked more about individual achievement and less about the role of "community"--including maybe even celebrating "middleclassness" instead

of using it as shorthand for selfishness; 4) in general wasn't so obsessed with race--as evidenced most negatively in talk of "white arrogance" and derogatory reference

to the "Great White West." ... I suspect Rev. Wright is going to be a bigger problem for Obama's campaign than has been conventionally perceived. When Obama

declared "we worship an awesome God in the blue states," were voters expecting this?...

[AZBlue]

96. Way to misquote and misrepresent!!

WTF?

[Beausoir]

97. Obamaroids will throw ANYONE under the wheels of the bus. Chelsea, Elizabeth....anyone.

These peope are truly ruthless. They will do anything to win. They will savage anyone to win.

[Hoof Hearted]

106. Yep. Pretty crowded under that bus.

Good company though.

[zulchzulu]

99. Elizabeth... come on...

You need a vacation, honey.

[madfloridian]

101. 1988....who stole what???????

"The junior senator from Illinois referenced "audacity of hope" in his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father." The line, they said, was taken from a sermon preached by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright titled "The Audacity to Hope.

Furthermore, as recounted in a Christian Science Monitor article last month, "Wright impressed Obama, and by 1988 the younger man found himself in the pews, listening to parishioners clap and cry out as Wright spoke of 'the audacity of hope."

How low will you stoop?

[Skwmom]

105. Edward's Two Americas speech was hardly an original.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

110. Successful politicians are opportunists

There is a fluidity of ideas, policies, memes, sound bites in modern media and politics. I think there are bigger fish to fry.

[rodeodance]

111. yes, Joe Wilson, the Hero of DU is under that bus. Very good company