Comm 317 2/26/08

The facts of the case are that Obama is being accused of using his friend Patrick's words because he did not site where he got his words from.
The ethical principles that are involved would be more so dealing with Hilary Clinton and her accusing Obama to gain voters.

I think that Hilary accusing Obama of plagiarism is awful. These words that he supposedly stole were borrowed from his friend Patrick. These words were never written or documented they were used in his speech which are usually written by the hired writers. In this case the man who writes Obamas speeches also at one point wrote for Patrick as well. So if anyone is to accuse Obama of plagiarism then it should be Patrick, however he is not, making it hard to claim that these words were stolen from him. Patrick has obviously approved of this borrowing of the words. So why is it that Hilary has to make such a big deal of the situation, they were not her words that he borrowed (and I am sure he is glad he hasn't borrowed her words). Hillary herself has created a crime much more closer to plagiarism then Obama when she accuse him of his plagiarism and then uses the word "Xerox", which is a word that has a copyright on it. This is a lame attack from Hilary Clinton. She should work on her own speeches and making sure that she is not plagiarising as well before she is quick to point the finger at someone else. This is not a paper that Obama wrote or a published piece of work, this is simply a message that both Obama and Patrick felt was an important topic to be voiced to the world. He did not steal his words he simply helped voice them, but maybe next time to avoid Hilary's childish tactics to take away votes from Obama he should reference Patricks words to avoid this whole ordeal. Obamas acts were not against the law in anyway, however some of those with STRICT ethics might see this simple act as wrong. But for most it is seen as a harmless act of a friend taking help from another friend and voicing a message. Congratulations Hilary, you tried to make Obama look bad and in return you looked foolish yourself.