What will happen at the Republican Convention?

[Trebuchet]

Amusing as it is in an easy-punchline kind of way, the plagiarism in Melania Trump’s speech really amounts to very little.

It’s the kind of thing that happens when a newly political wife not trained in this fresh life purpose and by all accounts not comfortable with having to give a speech cedes all responsibility for writing it to lower-level functionaries.

It’s a “cute” and ultimately harmless scandal, by itself, the sort of thing we laughed at when Ronald Reagan said something doddering or when Dubya said something mildly stupid, and still laugh at when Joe Biden drops a gaffe.

Where it becomes harmful is where it distracts from whatever heinous thing the organization is doing. Reagan’s handlers loved, just loved, that Interior Secretary James Watt had been so casually offensive about the “element” that came to see the Beach Boys, and Dubya’s people loved that their President flattened himself trying to push open a locked door, because in both cases those miniscule embarrassments ate up a whole news cycle and distracted us from stories that would have exposed worse; and I guarantee you, Trump’s people are secretly happy that Melania’s speechwriters put in the position of a plagiarist, because we’re talking about that and not about Steve King’s casual white-supremacy, the shutdown of the convention’s online message board because of the raging anti-semitism of its users, the outright fabrication of charges about Hillary Clinton, the angry exit of two state delegations, Rudy Giuliani’s lunacy, the appalled testimony from Trump’s main biographer, and any number of other horrifying moments that establish for anyone not hung up on irrelevancies just who these people are and what kind of danger they represent.

I guarantee you: if the worst you could say about these people yesterday is that some speechwriter screwed up, I’d be voting for him myself.

But this is what we’re paying attention to.

The Melania story rebounds to his advantage.


**I didn't write this, someone name Adam Troy Castro did**

Quoted in full for emphasis. You've said what I was going to, only better.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Ladewig]

But you are dodging the main implication of what you were saying;The Average American is too ignorant and stupid..too "Low Information" to use his vote in an intelliegent manner.If that is true you are going to get a bad result not reforms you make to the Democratic system.

I don't want to change the democratic part at all. If the populace is satisfied with a system that puts up the two least-liked presidential candidates in modern history, then let the people have their way. No alternative to democracy would be as fair and equitable as the current system, so removing voting rights from some group is not, and never will be, a solution. I believe there is no solution.

Also, I wasn't trying to argue that the average American voter is too ignorant and stupid, I was trying to argue that average American voter is too biased to vote in an intelligent manner.

ETA
and that the system itself (electoral college, majority required) is flawed.

 

[Denver]

According to the site turnitin.com which checks papers for plagiarism there is less than a one in a trillion chance that it is a coincidence that part of Melania's speech was so similar to Michelle's.

Making The Odds Great Again.

 

[dudalb]

I can't believe so many people where don't see how inept and incompetent the specch fiasco makes Trump look.ANd Yes, I think a lot of voters are seeing this.

 

[lobosrul]

I'd much rather his racist remarks, his jumping back and forth on the issues like a Mexican jumping bean, his insulting arrogant manner and narcissistic behavior be of prime concern than a speech his wife made.

But hey, that's just me.

Sure me too, but for anyone that was still undecided. Maybe plagiarism was the last straw?

 

[dudalb]

Also, I wasn't trying to argue that the average American voter is too ignorant and stupid, I was trying to argue that average American voter is too biased to vote in an intelligent manner.

Distinction without any real difference.
IF what you are saying is true, then we need to move to restrict the frachise to those who will use it responsibly, a la Robert Heinlein's ideas in "Starship Troopers" or HG Wells suggestion of limiting it to a scientifically trained elite. But those raise a whole other can of worms.

 

[dudalb]

Sure me too, but for anyone that was still undecided. Maybe plagiarism was the last straw?

Not so much plagiarism itself but that it displays Donald's incompetence as a manager and administrator so much. THat is what some people here do not get.

 

[Stacko]

OMG! OMG! OMG!

City of Cleveland joint information center can't confirm Alex Jones was whisked into unmarked car by cops in Cleveland. is looking into it

 

[Biscuit]

The infuriating thing is her and Michelle's speech isn't the worst thing that happened last night. Steve King took that honor. But Melina is hot so I guess that's what really matters.

It's also not surprising that Steve King is a white supremacist. It's not the first time he's stepped over the line into revealing he's a racist. He displays a confederate flag in his office.

King has doubled down.

link

“It’s pretty close [to what I said]. What I really said was ‘Western civilization’ and when you describe Western civilization that can mean much of Western civilization happens to be Caucasians...

It just so happens that white people do superior things. What a happy coincidence for King.

 

[acbytesla]

Sure me too, but for anyone that was still undecided. Maybe plagiarism was the last straw?

You think?

 

[Fudbucker]

Quoted in full for emphasis. You've said what I was going to, only better.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Disagree. To allow Melania to go out there with a plagiarized speech is either deliberate sabotage or rank incompetence. Not only does it dominate the news cycle at a time when you're rolling out your ticket for the country to see, it leads to the obvious question: if you can't handle running a convention, why on Earth should you be President?

ETA: Or what dudalb said.

 

[JoeB]

Who had "Outbreak of extremely contagious intestinal virus" in the pool?

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/10-organizers-rnc-hit-norovirus-cleveland/story?id=40705140

 

[robertovila]

Not so much plagiarism itself but that it displays Donald's incompetence as a manager and administrator so much. THat is what some people here do not get.

I definitely see your point, and I agree. This speech fiasco is yet another red flag indicating Trump's overall utter incompetence and vacuous nature.

 

[Tony Stark]

Donald says that he is going to hire the best people. But he can't even hire someone to write an original speech for what may have been the biggest moment of his trophy wife's life. Sad!

 

[Stacko]

Donald says that he is going to hire the best people. But he can't even hire someone to write an original speech for his trophy wife. Sad!

That certainly says volumes about Michelle Obama. Not the message he was hoping to send though.

 

[dudalb]

Disagree. To allow Melania to go out there with a plagiarized speech is either deliberate sabotage or rank incompetence. Not only does it dominate the news cycle at a time when you're rolling out your ticket for the country to see, it leads to the obvious question: if you can't handle running a convention, why on Earth should you be President?

ETA: Or what dudalb said.

My money is heavy on rank incompetence.
And of course, people who are not die hard Trump worshippers are going to think "if he can't even run his campaign competently,how the hell can he run the White House?".

 

[dudalb]

That nobody is being fired is actually making me think that those jokes about Melenia or one of Trump's kids writing the speech might be true. When something is this embarrassing,the speech writer is going to be fired.

 

[Tony Stark]

That nobody is being fired is actually making me think that those jokes about Melenia or one of Trump's kids writing the speech might be true. When something is this embarrassing,the speech writer is going to be fired.

Good point. Though it is possible that it is just Trump's complete inability to admit error. Firing someone over this would be an admission that he hired someone willing to plagiarise the wife of the GOP's sworn enemy. And so he may just rather pretend that there was no plagiarism.

 

[Mumbles]

King has doubled down.

link

It just so happens that white people do superior things. What a happy coincidence for King.

And here's the basics of why I don't care.

First, King is a guy who has spent years stating racist things with a "fig leaf" that's really just poison ivy. I know who he is.

Second, Trump's a more or less normal white supremacist. The rest of the speeches were basically exactly what I thought they would be, and to do some theft of my own, the republicans are who we thought they were.

(Stay tuned for the media to praise Paul Ryan or whoever for not sounding like a raging drunkard in a klan rally, by the way)

Having Trump's wife read a speech that was ripped from Michelle Obama was a surprise. I was genuinely caught off guard by that level of sheer incompetence, if not outright sabotage. And at the same time, demonizing a black woman and then spinning around and stealing her words about how she and her husband were connected? I don't normally talk about "appropriation", but I need to make an exception here. That is some 1950s record exec appropriation.

and yah, I'm not trying to convince anyone. I'm just...genuinely surprised.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

where are we talking about the "conspiracy theories" involving Trump's wife's plagiarism?

The Rick-roll was the hat tip from whoever did it. This, following the Star of David tweet, lead me to Conclude his campaign has been infested by 4chan.

I dunno about conspiracy but I smell shenanigans.