Sarah Palin Plagiarizes Newt Gingrich? (attack of the RINO's)

Politics Daily ^ | Posted: 06/8/09

[lewisglad]

Last week, when introducing Ronald Reagan's son, Michael, to a crowd in Anchorage, Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin delivered a speech that made news for its stinging criticism of President Obama's economic stimulus package. Further analysis of the speech, however, suggests that Palin lifted many of its central ideas, and the way they were worded, from fellow conservative (and presumptive competitor in the 2012 race for president) Newt Gingrich.

It appears that much of Palin's text was inspired by an article that Gingrich and Craig Shirley published in 2005 in the Manchester Union Leader, titled "Republicans Need to Relearn Lessons of the Reagan Revolution." As dissected by the Huffington Post's Geoffrey Dunn, the similarities between the Gingrich/Shirley piece and Palin's remarks indicate that she relied heavily on the article when preparing her own remarks. (She even acknowledged, "Recently, Newt Gingrich, he had written a good article about Reagan.") Here, then, is a list of before and after (or after and before, to be more accurate) comparisons:

Palin: We have to remember that Ronald Reagan never won any arguments in Washington. He won the arguments by resonating with the American people.

Gingrich/Shirley: Reagan never won an argument in Washington. Reagan won his arguments in the country with the American people.

More:

Palin: Remember this? His vision for the Cold War? We win, they lose.

Gingrich/Shirley: On the inevitability of the Soviet Union, Reagan responded with a then shocking vision for the Cold War -- "we win, they lose."

And more:

Palin: First, I think what we're going to learn tonight via Michael [Reagan] is that Ronald Reagan's ideas were the right ideas and all we have to do is look back at his record, his economic record and his national security record to know that his ideas were right.

Gingrich/Shirley: What should Americans learn from this remarkable man and his remarkable Presidency?... The "right" ideas really matter (the left was wrong and Reagan was right about virtually every major public policy issue and the historic record is clear for those willing to look at it).

And more:

Palin: And with detente, speaking of detente, he used two words: "Evil Empire."

Gingrich/Shirley: Reagan replaced the entire vision of detente with two vivid words: "Evil Empire."

Dunn goes on to cite six more strikingly similar passages from Palin's speech to show that a whole lot of cutting and pasting went into its preparation. Accused of plagiarizing the Gingrich and Shirley article, Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, responded: "It is abundantly clear in context, and even in subcontext, that the overview of President Reagan's legacy was attributed to Newt Gingrich."

True, Palin did mention Gingrich twice in the speech, but why was Palin so dependent on his (and Shirley's) analysis of "The Gipper" that she had to lift its wording so often? And why not highlight each and every passage in the speech that relied on Gingrich/Shirley with a clause like, "As Gingrich and Shirley wrote..."?

Plagiarism is a recurrent problem in politics. Joe Biden has done it. Barack Obama has been accused of the same (though on a much smaller scale). Perhaps this is a condition of our modern world, in which salient information is but a click away.

As yet, we have no comment form Gingrich on the borrowing of his old article. Should he be flattered, offended, or both?

[Yaelle]

I have a pet peeve about plagiarism. I love Sarah but she overdid it. She should have taken HALF of the Newt attributions, and gotten the rest from the source. Newt’s article should have sent her back to great Reagan speeches or editorials, and she should have borrowed more from Reagan than from Newt.

I do not think Sarah plagiarized, but she came too close for comfort.

With that said, her speech sounds great, and all three of them (Newt, Sarah, and President Reagan) are correct.

[Cheetahcat]

“It is not good form to use another person's ideas and especially the expression of those ideas without acknowledgment.
Robert Hook published Newton's laws of motion, without attribution. Of course, Hook published them nine years before Newton, so attribution would have required prescience on Hook's part. Hook bore a life-long grudge against Newton for not acknowledging his contribution to “Newton's Laws”. In fact the whole apple falling from a tree story may have been an invention by Newton, since the episode occurred years before Hook's book”

But they are Reagan's Ideas and IMHO open to any real Conservative which she is BTW Newt went left with his warming Pandering.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

...And Palin lifted, without attribution, whole sections of a 2005 Gingrich article in a speech she gave last Wednesday...

DEBUNKED.

Conservatives4Palin

...Apparently someone pointed out to Geoffrey that by citing Gingrich at least five times in her speech, Gov. Palin was attributing the words/ideas to him. She had no intention of pretending that it was hers. She was paraphrasing his words, but essentially using what he wrote. That’s why she cited his article five times....

[GOYAKLA]

See Sarah on “Hannity” tonight!
“Palin/AnyoneBut Romney would make the most sense of all.” (Agree 100%)

[11th Commandment]

Either the author of this story is a LIAR or an IDOIT. If two people quote or summarize a primary source, they are both going to sound alike. This is not plagiarism. At least she credited the primary source unlike Joe Biden

[deport]

My point is that something like this should be easy to refute or prove as I suspect the speech was posted online at least once. Then as the lawyer points out via the speech contex it is easy to show Ma Palin gave attributions. Dead horse.

[leilani]

His Politics Daily bio says he’s also a musician, might explain a little. :)

LOL. Well then there's still hope for him if he switches instruments. He's obviously pretty rotten at the petard, but maybe he could try his hand hoisting something with less potential for backfiring, like the alto sax, maybe. ;-)

[NormsRevenge]

Is there now a copyright on political thought? Geesh.

[Three if by government]

Wait did Palin throw Rush under the bus too?

[NormsRevenge]

No idea on that. I haven’t been following newz too closely last few days. She’d need a big bus , No, make that a big amphib duckboat if she did. I saw a couple in Ketchikan on Saturday. ;-)

[LucyJo]

If Palin plagarized Newt and Shirley, then they plagarized Reagan!

Good grief! Most Conservatives, including on blogs and message boards, have used those quotes at one time or another, and countless others as well. Most Conservatives have read everything by Reagan. Not all Conservatives have read everything by Newt and Shirley.

The difference is that too many people who call themselves Conservatives can quote Reagan, but they don’t always stand strong on Conservative principles. Sarah Palin has done so far, and I hope she always will regardless of the pressure.

[LucyJo]

plagarized = plagiarized (sigh)

[Three if by government]

I was kidding Palin would never do that she is a patriot

[NormsRevenge]

Aw heck! lol