How Did This Happen???
Last night Melania Trump gave a speech before the Republican which lifted complete lines from a speech Michelle Obama gave before the Democratic Convention in 2008. Most people are left scratching their heads wondering how this happened but they will get no help from the Trump campaign which denies anything happened. They say the ideas expressed by Mrs. Obama are held by many including Mrs. Trump. End of story.
No, not really. This explanation violates the first rule of a good yarn to cover a bad goof. It must be credible enough for a thinking supporter to give without being embarrassed. The problem here is not with ideas. It’s with exact words. There are programs professors and editors use to identify plagiarism, the Melania Trump speech would earn the author an F.
So if the “greatest showman in the world” will not explain how the mistake happened, let me offer a possible explanation which I suspect doesn’t miss the mark by much. Some second level staff person got assigned the job of penning a speech for Mrs. Trump. This person called an aide and they kicked it around. In the conversation someone remembered Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008. She went into the convention with some negatives and after the speech came out a star. So the aide was given the assignment, look it over and tell me why it worked. ( The aide may or may not been assigned to look at other would-be first lady speeches as well.) The report took the form of a memo which described the speech’s strengths and actually provided quotes to demonstrate its good qualities.
Now the memo sat on the staff person’s desk while the demands of Mr. Trump and convention planning dominated his/her time. Then somebody asked, “Where is Melania’s speech? She’s not a pro she’ll need a little time to read this over on a Teleprompter.” So the staff person pounded something out with an eye toward changing Michelle’s speech enough so no would be able to charge plagiarism, but a couple of the most powerful lines were so good that in the short time available it was hard to rearrange the text and not have it lose its punch. So in they went verbatim.
Yes, everyone has the internet and in minutes after the speech the twitter world lit up. The Trump spokesman, trying to wriggle out of this, blamed Hillary of all people. Just for the record she did not write Melania’s speech or break it to the media. The real Presidential aspirant responsible for this embarrassment is Mr. Donald Trump.
Obama married a Harvard lawyer who used words for a living and knew by instinct and experience how to make sure that her presentation was a strong and eloquent expression of her feelings. If she felt she needed help she would demand her husband's staff provide it.
The Donald married a woman with a very different background. Barack got to know Michelle working over briefs at the law firm where she functioned as his boss. Trump on the other hand met this gorgeous model, Melania, when she made a living often posing, sometimes while scantily clad.
During the campaign she has played a small role. Trump’s children by a previous marriage have been much more front and center. But Donald is proud of his wife and he decreed that she would speak on opening night. How do I know Trump insisted on this? No impartial political operative would suggest opening the convention for a candidate building his appeal on family values and xenophobia with his third wife, who was 24 years younger than he and who was born in Slovenia. ( Being the third Mrs. Trump is one of those good paying jobs that a deserving American girl from the Midwest should have gotten.)
So the Donald set her up to fail, to be compared to people who have developed skills as public speakers all their lives. Then he didn’t demand that she got the kind of help she needed to have some chance not come out looking lake a pretty deer in the head lights. But of course it’s much worse. Now the discussion is whether the person who puts words in her mouth should be fired.
The campaign is managed by Paul Manafort. He was hired after the intervention of Melania’s step children who by the way are the same generation as Melania. He says “there is nothing to see here and if there is, Hillary did it.” Rance Priebus says fire the swain responsible. Corey Lewandowski, the former manager agrees with Priebus.
If I may admit a prejudice, I find it hard to give the benefit of the doubt to woman who made a living posing semi nude, but I know this is unfair. I can imagine how strongly she must feel the need to prove she belongs on the stage with serious people talking about serious things. Trump’s campaign sent her up there naked. It doesn’t say much for Donald Tromp’s qualities as a husband or as a manager that he allowed it to happen. But by this time that’s “a dog bites man story, isn’t it.
No, not really. This explanation violates the first rule of a good yarn to cover a bad goof. It must be credible enough for a thinking supporter to give without being embarrassed. The problem here is not with ideas. It’s with exact words. There are programs professors and editors use to identify plagiarism, the Melania Trump speech would earn the author an F.
So if the “greatest showman in the world” will not explain how the mistake happened, let me offer a possible explanation which I suspect doesn’t miss the mark by much. Some second level staff person got assigned the job of penning a speech for Mrs. Trump. This person called an aide and they kicked it around. In the conversation someone remembered Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008. She went into the convention with some negatives and after the speech came out a star. So the aide was given the assignment, look it over and tell me why it worked. ( The aide may or may not been assigned to look at other would-be first lady speeches as well.) The report took the form of a memo which described the speech’s strengths and actually provided quotes to demonstrate its good qualities.
Now the memo sat on the staff person’s desk while the demands of Mr. Trump and convention planning dominated his/her time. Then somebody asked, “Where is Melania’s speech? She’s not a pro she’ll need a little time to read this over on a Teleprompter.” So the staff person pounded something out with an eye toward changing Michelle’s speech enough so no would be able to charge plagiarism, but a couple of the most powerful lines were so good that in the short time available it was hard to rearrange the text and not have it lose its punch. So in they went verbatim.
Yes, everyone has the internet and in minutes after the speech the twitter world lit up. The Trump spokesman, trying to wriggle out of this, blamed Hillary of all people. Just for the record she did not write Melania’s speech or break it to the media. The real Presidential aspirant responsible for this embarrassment is Mr. Donald Trump.
Obama married a Harvard lawyer who used words for a living and knew by instinct and experience how to make sure that her presentation was a strong and eloquent expression of her feelings. If she felt she needed help she would demand her husband's staff provide it.
The Donald married a woman with a very different background. Barack got to know Michelle working over briefs at the law firm where she functioned as his boss. Trump on the other hand met this gorgeous model, Melania, when she made a living often posing, sometimes while scantily clad.
During the campaign she has played a small role. Trump’s children by a previous marriage have been much more front and center. But Donald is proud of his wife and he decreed that she would speak on opening night. How do I know Trump insisted on this? No impartial political operative would suggest opening the convention for a candidate building his appeal on family values and xenophobia with his third wife, who was 24 years younger than he and who was born in Slovenia. ( Being the third Mrs. Trump is one of those good paying jobs that a deserving American girl from the Midwest should have gotten.)
So the Donald set her up to fail, to be compared to people who have developed skills as public speakers all their lives. Then he didn’t demand that she got the kind of help she needed to have some chance not come out looking lake a pretty deer in the head lights. But of course it’s much worse. Now the discussion is whether the person who puts words in her mouth should be fired.
The campaign is managed by Paul Manafort. He was hired after the intervention of Melania’s step children who by the way are the same generation as Melania. He says “there is nothing to see here and if there is, Hillary did it.” Rance Priebus says fire the swain responsible. Corey Lewandowski, the former manager agrees with Priebus.
If I may admit a prejudice, I find it hard to give the benefit of the doubt to woman who made a living posing semi nude, but I know this is unfair. I can imagine how strongly she must feel the need to prove she belongs on the stage with serious people talking about serious things. Trump’s campaign sent her up there naked. It doesn’t say much for Donald Tromp’s qualities as a husband or as a manager that he allowed it to happen. But by this time that’s “a dog bites man story, isn’t it.