The “similarity” between these passages is “evidence”?
Not seeing it.
At all.
I am.
Me too. If I were given these two papers in a creative writing class by two different students, I’d have to call them in for a frank discussion about authenticity, honesty, and ghostwriter’s royalties.
Have to agree with you there. The two compared passages don’t look similar to me.
No, it’s not “evidence” in the same way that duplication of exact phrases would be evidence of plagiarism. But do I see and hear a cadence and rhythm and style that is oddly similar. Writer’s have distinct voices. So it’s not at all a stretch to consider the possibility.
That said, these are only two passages, and the entirety of the two books would need to be considered. Or, Obama may have just been enamored of Ayers’ writing and tried to emulate it—especially since he had no clear voice and writing skills of his own at the time, evidenced by his defaulting on the first book contract he’d been given an advance and something like 2 years to produce.