Plagiarism

A classy presentation last night at the Republican convention by Donald Trump's wife, Melania, has deteriorated overnight when it was discovered that a small part of this talk was rephrased from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democrat convention. The pejorative term being gleefully trumpeted is "plagiarism." Watching the side-by-side comparisons of these few sentences leads me to believe that Melania's speechwriter for this small section was certainly guilty of misfeasance.  The liberal media is in full playground attack mode ... predicting firings within the Trump campaign, large defections among Trump delegates, and even the breakup of the Trump marriage.

Watching MSNBC this morning would suggest that the Trump campaign is flying apart. This may be partially true, but I feel that Donald Trump has faced similar crises many times in the past and will somehow survive this kerfuffle. I also strongly suspect that one or more campaign staffers will fall on their swords well before prime TV time tonight. And this whole matter will quickly blow over ... except of course in numerous Hellary Clinton campaign ads that will be repeatedly played in the coming months. Forming these commercials will be a little tricky however... because their making Melania look bad does nothing to promote Hellary's message that this is the year of the woman.

How am I doin'?

I first met Ed Koch at a sleezy second-floor hole-in-the-wall Democrat club on 14th Street at the corner of Third Avenue sometime in the late 1970's.  He was running for mayor of New York City and I was a starry-eyed liberal youth ... thinking I could have some effect on politics.  There couldn't have been more than 10 people assembled there to hear this upstart politician outline for about 2 hours his hopes for the City ... and I'm sure he must have repeated this gig every night for many months.  I don't remember his issues or his platform, but I did like what he said and how he said it. And I did vote for him and tried to convince many of my friends to do likewise.  Amazingly, he won.

Over the years since then he occasionally would be interviewed in the national media about political happenings in the city and around the country and, although our core politics diverged dramatically, I still very often agreed with his perspective.  In fact, I think he spoke at a recent Republican convention ... not so surprising.  His logic and understanding of the human condition befitted his age and experience.

Some say he was gay.  I don't give a rap.  He was a decent man who spoke his mind and played few of the political games that we see all too often today.  And he would often greet constituents with his catch phrase, "How am I doin'?  Mr. Mayor, for my money, you did OK.

R.I.P.