I'm sure many of you saw the debates last night; I only saw part of them, but from what I saw, I think that Hillary Clinton was more effective. Obama seemed to fumble over his answers and even in his speech. Clinton was very direct and to the point. I do believe that Obama wastes words or at least, last night, he had a lot of empty rhetoric in his replies. I teach my students to avoid "fluff" and "padding" in their essays, and I felt that much of what he said was hedging or evading the answer. As to the charges of plagiarism by Clinton, Obama's reply that his friend "gave him permission" to use these lines does not exonerate him from the responsibility of giving attribution for the borrowed phrases, does it? I mean, even if I'm friends with Bill Clinton (which I'm not), I can't just "lift" entire passages from his previous speeches and then give them without attribution, with or without his permission. Or can I? I'm interested in what other's perceptions are. I have not heard Obama speak in the past, so I'm only going by what I heard last night.

 

Carol