Of all the most stupid mistakes we have seen candidates make in running for office, there is a sort of unspoken rule book of do not’s that are just common sense for anyone experienced with the media. On that list of rules, somewhere around number two or three, is the common sense rule of not plagiarizing someone else’s work. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has apparently never read that rule book.
Liberty University, best known as Pastor Jerry Falwell‘s private Christian academy, is the largest Evangelical Christian university in the world, and each year hosts the largest weekly gathering of Christian students in North America. Paul was asked to speak at the event for the purpose of endorsing Ken Cuccinelli whose campaign for governor has taken a serious dive in the polls in light of a number of recent events. Unfortunately for party mate Cuccinelli, Paul just added to the mess of manure his campaign is trying to dig its way out of.
For some odd reason, even odd for Paul, he decided to take the topic of his speech from the movies Gattaca and My Left Foot. Paul used the plots from each movie to make a point about the evil Pro-Choice people using abortion as a eugenics program to enslave the American people — an insulting and tired old claim that has been proven false time and time again. Now that is nothing new for Paul, but using the plot of a movie to prove his claim is somewhat unusual even for him. Even more disturbing is that he plagiarized his speech, almost word for word, from the entry at Wikipedia. Perhaps, he thinks he is still in junior high school?
Check the Gattaca plot entry at Wikipedia, and read along as you watch the speech below.
Rachel Maddow originally broke the story last night on her show, but this morning Maddow Blog noted that someone had laughably changed the entry to read “Rand Paul talking point,” but someone with a lesser sense of humor, and apparently better morals or ethics than Rand Paul, changed it back. Maddow Blog also made sure to point out “that’s not even close to the NBC Universal IP address.”
Image courtesy of Will Femia, The Rachel Maddow Show
Maddow also mentioned that plagiarism by politicians, even presidential candidates, isn’t entirely unheard of. In 2011, Tea Party candidate Herman Cain tried to use the Pok?mon theme song as his own. Even current Vice President Joe Biden was forced to give up his presidential campaign in 1988 when he identified with a personal story about British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. Biden had always credited the story to Kinnock, but on two unfortunate occasions had mistakenly neglected to mention that the story came from someone else. That apparent lapse in information sharing cost him 12 years from the political arena.
In light of all the recent scandals surrounding Paul, one has to wonder what kind of fallout he might be looking at. Is it too early to call this Gattaca Gate or Paul-ghazi, or do we just chalk this up to another one of the serious lack of ethics questions that Rand Paul seems to exude so well?
Seriously, what kind of moron plagiarizes from Wikipedia and thinks it will not get noticed?? So far, Rand Paul’s campaign has refused to respond to media inquiries.
Watch Rachel Maddow’s original story about this if you need a good laugh. We all do, now and then.
Top image courtesy of Conservativehaven.com
