Clinton Campaign: "Here's Who Else We Stole From"

Hillary Clinton has learned an unfortunate lesson about making overly general accusations about plagiarism: Once you define the category as broadly as the Clinton campaign has, you leave yourself open to similar charges. Last night's debate with Barack Obama proved to be a case in point: What were initially viewed as conciliatory, healing remarks by Clinton about the primary campaign—"You know, whatever happens, we're going to be fine."—were immediately pounced upon by the Obama campaign as proof that the senator from New York was just as likely to rip off someone else's rhetoric as their own candidate (John Edwards said something similar back in December). Hillary's people struck back, noting that it was a common expression and that there were at least 12 other famous people Hillary plagiarized the phrase from. Or wait, maybe that's not what they were trying to say. Either way, it's a good thing that both of the Democratic candidates can engage in a debate on the real, substantive issues facing Americans today.