Yes, I agree. This might seem to be a silly, trivial thing, as the issue with the “jobs plan” (or whatever it was) from the gal running against Scott Walker for gov, but the point is that you cannot claim an IDEA is yours when you’ve lifted it from someone else.
Just say: hey, Mr. Smith has this idea and I like it myself, so that’s my plan; or I’d like to read this piece I found on that fine website FR....
(How much would we be loving this woman had she done that?)
You can’t copyright an idea... just the words expressing it.