Video: Michelle Malkin on Obama’s “intellectual bankruptcy”
posted at 10:30 am on June 5, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Michelle Malkin appeared on Fox and Friends this morning to discuss the oddly similar speeches that Barack Obama gave on Tuesday and Mario Cuomo gave on a Thursday … in 1984. Michelle doesn’t believe that the striking similarities go quite as far as plagiarism, but that they demonstrate something worse — a bankruptcy of intellect. Have Democrats come up with an original thought in the past quarter-century?
Obama has run on themes of hope and change, and the only way he can express that is to recycle old Mario Cuomo speeches? That is the pinnacle of irony. Obama doesn’t represent the fresh and new, he conglomerates the old and rejected from decades of Democratic rhetoric. It’s the same old intellectual bankruptcy which lost that 1984 election, and won’t age any better in 2008.
Update: Headline changed by acclamation. I’m not sure the boss will appreciate her single-name identity being hijacked by Mrs. Obama, but if clarification is what you need ….
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Regarding the Mario Cuomo speech that the media lionized in 1984 and Mario Cuomo still speaks about as if he delivered the Gettysburg Address: The Cuomo speech was filled with an outlandish lie about President Reagan. Cuomo accused President Reagan of being complicent in the murder of nuns in El Salvador. There was one problem with that Cuomo claim. The nuns were murdered when Jimmy Carter was president.
Second problem with Cuomo’s speech. It was so effective that Mondale took one state in the election. BTW, the best column written about the Cuomo speech was written by Anthony Lewis of all people. Lewis, then and now a brie and chablis guy from the NY Times, pointed out right after the speech that the speech was 100% negative and had nothing good to say about how Americans are living. I guess Mr. Lewis proved that old adage about a blind squirrel eventually finding a nut.
Larraby on June 5, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Whenever I see “Michelle” in a headline I think of Obama’s wife.
AbaddonsReign on June 5, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Cuomo didn’t close his speech with this gem, surely:
I can’t imagine anybody thought Walter Mondale was going to be the Lord and Savior of the sick, jobless, oceans, and earth.
Of course, even if he did, at least Cuomo would have been talking about somebody else….Obama seems quite comfortable saying (and apparently believing) that crap about himself.
funky chicken on June 5, 2008 at 10:41 AM
this is not plagarism, its the sins of the father passed down to the son
rico101 on June 5, 2008 at 10:42 AM
Ed,
Since the people that read HotAir don’t always know the origin of HotAir, and maybe just followed a link to get here for the first time, I think using just “Michelle” in your subject line has become inadequate. There’s another famous Michelle in the news these days. Do you need to use “Malkin” instead, at least until the Democrat presidential candidate loses in November? Just a thought.
RBMN on June 5, 2008 at 10:44 AM
His speech is indicative to the intellectual bankruptcy of this country. I know I’ve said this before, but I’d say this is the root of problem during this election. He wouldn’t say these things unless it would get him elected. The idea of “openness” is what’s killing us.What happened to educating ourselves for the sake of finding a “better” life? We no longer search for which idea or cultural points are best, rather we say that the very question of whether an idea is right or wrong, better or worse, is the cause for hatred. As Allan Bloom states of openness, “the point is not correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right all.” “Openness used to be the virtue that permitted us to seek the good by using reason. It now means accepting everything and denying reason’s power. The unrestrained and thoughtless pursuit of openness, without recognizing the inherent political, social, or cultural problem of openness as the goal of nature, has rendered openness meaningless. Cultural relativism destroys both one’s own and the good. Culture, hence, closedness, reigns supreme. Openness to closedness is what we teach.”
~”The Closing of the American Mind” by Allan Bloom
And we wonder why we’re doomed to repeating history.
Send_Me on June 5, 2008 at 10:45 AM
There are only so many ways to package tax increases, sex perversion, surrender, and abortion until it begins to sound like all you talk about is tax increases, sex perversion, surrender, and abortion.
It’s like Billy Joel said about plagiarizing music: “Hey, there are only so many notes, and they play the best ones on the radio all the time.”
Akzed on June 5, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Obama’s hope is to change us back to the national malaise brought to us last by Jimmah Carter. The new ‘progressivism’ is a throwback to statist, collectivist policies that have failed every time, every where they’ve been tried. Progressivism = atavism.
petefrt on June 5, 2008 at 10:46 AM
Waiting for him to channel the Mondale campaign next – Where’s the beef?
whitetop on June 5, 2008 at 10:46 AM
“I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,” Barack Hussein O’Jesus.
“If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again,” John Edwards.
Who the hell do these people think they are? And what kind of people take them seriously?
Akzed on June 5, 2008 at 10:51 AM
I saw this on F&F this morning, but Steve Doocey said there was a vid clips on HotAir, but did I miss it? heh, which one was he talking about?
JetBoy on June 5, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Stand by for an original thought from Barack Hussein Obama……………………………………
whitetop on June 5, 2008 at 10:54 AM
I don’t know. I really don’t. Show them a Benny Hinn video, and they will fall on the floor laughing at the guy (and I’d agree) but their politicians say equally, or more, outrageous stuff? They can’t wait to stampede to the polls to vote for them.
I really don’t get it.
funky chicken on June 5, 2008 at 11:05 AM
If people click on a link with “Michelle” in it, thinking it’s Obama, and come here by mistake, they may stick around to read something else.
Connie on June 5, 2008 at 11:09 AM
I agree with the concept here, but Fox News did a terrible job showing similarities. The clips they chose of the speeches didn’t really show much correlation which will make the majority of viewers just dismiss this segment entirely.
raiderdav on June 5, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Michelle, what you’re reading isn’t plagiarism. What’s happening is, over the years, the Democrats have ALL remained high from smoking the same old donkey dung.
byteshredder on June 5, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Every time Democrats comment on the cost of medical care people need to point out that it is Medicare that sets the cost of health care in this country. I.E. Health care costs exactly what the U.S. governemnt says it should cost. There is pretty much no doctor or hospital that deviates more than a few dollars from Medicare’s pricing structure.
Buford on June 5, 2008 at 11:22 AM
I didn’t say it was.
Michelle on June 5, 2008 at 11:30 AM
I think we’re making too much of a fuss about this particular incident. I agree that liberals are intellectually bankrupt; I agree Obama offers nothing new; and I agree Obama has been guilty of plagiarism before. But in this case, the plagiarism charge is pretty weak.
To begin every sentence with “X should go visit Y and see how horrible it is” is an obvious device used by a lot of politicians (especially on the left).
infidel65 on June 5, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Thanks for tossing us benighted Americans your loose change, you pompous ass.
mymanpotsandpans on June 5, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Excellent point. To them govt is church, and Benny Hin is a competitor who must therefore be ridiculed. Hinn deserves the ridicule, but if you mock Hussein’s absolutely certainty that his nomination is the moment the lame will walk and the blind will see, the planet will be healed, the lepers cleansed, etc. you are (I guess) a divisive racist or whatever.
Akzed on June 5, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Messiah Dude, can you cure cancer too?
Pluck your magic twanger froggie.
fogw on June 5, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Uh, you think it’s evidence of our brilliance? Why are you flying off the handle?
Akzed on June 5, 2008 at 11:36 AM
Definitely not plagiarism…at least in the clips that were shown. An example of plagiarism is when Biden ripped off Neil Kinnock a number of years ago…was it in 88 or 92?
This is some on the right wing having far too much time looking at old tapes. I’m sure if you look at what Magic Johnson said before the NBA Finals 20 years ago, and what Kobe Bryant is saying now, it’d be just about the same thing…it’s all cliches and platitudes…not plagiarism.
On the other hand, MM’s contention that this shows intellectual bankruptcy has a little bit more heft behind it.
asc85 on June 5, 2008 at 11:39 AM
Ah, let BO spew his BS. Between his soaring (yet empty) rhetoric and the constant BJ he’s going to get from the MSM, he’s just going to set up those that vote for him for a much deeper disappointment when his empty suit comes up against the reality of actually having to govern.
thirteen28 on June 5, 2008 at 11:39 AM
Speaking of music, isn’t there a song entitled Everything Old Is New Again?
It’s certainly nice to see “our” Michelle instead of “the other” Michelle. Speaking again of music, apologies to anyone who now gets that Beatles song stuck in their heads.
Bigfoot on June 5, 2008 at 11:48 AM
I watched the Cuomo snippets-nothing has changed, will ever change. Obama is just the latest model of complainer.
Think about it: his vaunted experience is as a ‘community organizer’.
A ‘community organizer’ is a non-professional complainer, pointing out the ills of society, real or imagined. They exist to point out problems; what we need is a problem solver in the Oval office.
“President Obama, the Chinese government has massed a fleet of destroyers off of California and are calling for us to surrender! What can we do?”
“Are you sure we don’t deserve to be taken down a few notches? You ask, ‘What can we do?’ when it would be better to ask, ‘What have we done?’”
Doug on June 5, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Hey, just to clarify, Michelle said it wasn’t plagiarism; I said it was, yesterday.
Ed Morrissey on June 5, 2008 at 11:55 AM
Michelle’s point at the end of the segment is the silver bullet — this guy (Obama) is nothing new — he’s not about change, but rather, he’s about recycling the same tired, failed policies of the left. Carter’s economic policies were a disaster for this country, and we’re STILL cleaning up the dirty diaper he left us on the foreign policy front.
D2Boston on June 5, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Snort, good one.
omnipotent on June 5, 2008 at 12:21 PM
Obama claims thread is racist and divisive in 3….2….1…
Oh, my intellectual bankruptcy just resurrected an old HA running joke.
AverageJoe on June 5, 2008 at 1:17 PM
The really sad part is that McCain often sounds like HE’S channeling the likes of Carter, Cuomo, Mondale, and Dukakis as well. THAT’s what scares me.
We’re doomed.
Gartrip on June 5, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Watching the final game of the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup finals and seeing the great star Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins and wondering if Evgeni is related to our Michelle?
Larraby on June 5, 2008 at 1:32 PM
I helped vote Carter down once before and plan to do it again.
oakpack on June 5, 2008 at 3:34 PM
Man, I hate bullshiite speeches like this.
sheesh on June 5, 2008 at 4:23 PM
Both Hillary and Barack are disciples of Saul Alinsky.
Hillary wrote her Wellesley thesis about him, then later tried to hide it.
Barack’s first job out of college was as a “Community Organizer” in Chicago. I am willing to bet that it was with the Industrial Areas Foundation, a Chicago-based community organization established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky.
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909, Chicago, Illinois – June 12, 1972, Carmel, California) is generally considered the father of community organizing.
These people are Communists/Democratic Socialists.
Obama doesn’t have an original thought in his head.
He’s repeating the party line and working to bring about this Program of CHANGE.
They also want to CHANGE our Constitution to this.
Red Pill on June 5, 2008 at 5:17 PM
Both Hillary and Barack are disciples of Saul Alinsky.
Hillary wrote her Wellesley thesis about him, then later tried to hide it.
Red Pill on June 5, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Barack’s first job out of college was as a “Community Organizer” in Chicago. I am willing to bet that it was with the Industrial Areas Foundation, a Chicago-based community organization established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky.
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909, Chicago, Illinois – June 12, 1972, Carmel, California) is generally considered the father of community organizing.
Red Pill on June 5, 2008 at 5:25 PM
Empty suits prattle empty BS.
duff65 on June 5, 2008 at 5:28 PM
These people are Communists/Democratic Socialists.
Obama doesn’t have an original thought in his head.
He’s repeating the party line and working to bring about this Program of Socialist CHANGE.
They also want to CHANGE our Constitution to this.
Red Pill on June 5, 2008 at 5:30 PM
For Clinton and Obama, a Common Ideological Touchstone
Red Pill on June 5, 2008 at 5:31 PM
Another common theme is those nun murderers were supported by American black liberation theologists like Reverend Wright.
miles on June 5, 2008 at 7:02 PM
Michelle is correct; the democraps are completely and utterly devoid of ideas. Obama, Carter, Klinton, Como, Kerry et al all sound like Karl Marx using modern language.
Zorro on June 5, 2008 at 8:49 PM
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