What Is Plagiarism, Really?

This morning the internet is all up in arms over Melania Trump’s speech that borrowed heavily from Michelle Obama’s ’08 DNC address. I couldn’t help but notice how when a Slovenian borrows heavily from a African Americans performance she gets called out as a thief, but when four lads from Liverpool did it they end up in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame just down the street. You can’t denounce Trump out of one side of your mouth and hum the lyrics to “Imagine” out of the other Bernie Bros. Matter of fact, if your a Clinton voter, your biggest concern should be that the very same speech that was used to praise Obama works just as well for Donald. Might even see some Democrats hopping on board the Trump Train after they realize this.

But what is plagiarism exactly? No one knows because if I were to write the exact definition word-for-word right here it would be considered theft of Merriam-Websters intellectual property. That’s why it’s such a tricky thing to define. If we’re going to use the liberal definition we have to at least be consistant and call it on both sides. But when Hillary said she “did not recall” like a million times in front of Congress I dont recall people claiming she was plagerizing Ronald Reagan. Interesting how that works out.

That’s the difference between Clinton and Melania- Hillary’s a rattle snake while Melania’s a feather boa and a soft target. Clinton’s been around long enough to know that its impossible to be accused of plagerising answers in a press conference if you never ever take questions from reporters to begin with. One of those “cant hit what you don’t see” type situations. Melania on the other hand is ironically being punished by the media when her only crime is agreeing with everything a Obama says. I might not be able to define “plagiarism” but I know how to define “Irony” folks.

Fortunately Governor Christie was there to clear it all up for us:

All-time spin zone move by Chris Cristie this morning reminding everyone that technically a vast, vast majority of Melania’s speech last night was not plagierised. How come no one’s talking about the 93% of her speech that wasn’t plagerized? And when will the media end their silence on all the cigars that Bill Clinton  didnt stick into a 22 year old interns vagina? Trump’s in a no win situation when it comes to plagerising. When he starts making up his own stuff and says things that no one has ever said before its called a “lie”, but if his family steals quotes from someone else its “plagerism.”

Best part about this that I cant wait for is after every speech Hillary makes there are going to be thousands of people calling Hillary out on finding three words in a row that are lifted from Nixon and calling her out for plagerism. Dont make the accusation if you can’t handle the spotlight Madam Secretary.