[Bill,
February 24, 2008]
Obama is a plagiarist, just as Hillary said; plus Michelle's thesis
Check it out here.
Yup. This needs to be a campaign ad for Hillary now.
*****
I read some of Michelle Obama's Princeton senior thesis, which is now on the Web at Politico. To the Obama campaign's credit, they released the paper when Princeton embargoed it until after the election.
There's nothing really there. Just a young woman wondering whether she'd ever be fully accepted in the white community and if she is, what that will cost her in terms of her black identity. It's a reasonable question for a young woman.
The thesis itself is written in a faux-officious style; the couple of pages I read showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the use of hyphens, semi-colons and commas. In fact, I think Michelle Obama may have been more confused about writing style than identity -- that is, if she's mixing up a stunted, stilted, official-sounding writing style with whiteness, no wonder she doesn't want to fit in. But she was just a kid ... at least she was asking important questions.
Read Hillary Clinton's Wellesley thesis and compare. Hillary, for all her conceptual and personal faults, was an outstanding writer. Her thinking is lucid, her language concrete, her grammar flawless, and her points backed up with evidence. She was obviously an outstanding student, even if I disagreed with much of what she said. But students are allowed to "try on thinking." Of course, Hillary's not running against Michelle.
Yup. This needs to be a campaign ad for Hillary now.
*****
I read some of Michelle Obama's Princeton senior thesis, which is now on the Web at Politico. To the Obama campaign's credit, they released the paper when Princeton embargoed it until after the election.
There's nothing really there. Just a young woman wondering whether she'd ever be fully accepted in the white community and if she is, what that will cost her in terms of her black identity. It's a reasonable question for a young woman.
The thesis itself is written in a faux-officious style; the couple of pages I read showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the use of hyphens, semi-colons and commas. In fact, I think Michelle Obama may have been more confused about writing style than identity -- that is, if she's mixing up a stunted, stilted, official-sounding writing style with whiteness, no wonder she doesn't want to fit in. But she was just a kid ... at least she was asking important questions.
Read Hillary Clinton's Wellesley thesis and compare. Hillary, for all her conceptual and personal faults, was an outstanding writer. Her thinking is lucid, her language concrete, her grammar flawless, and her points backed up with evidence. She was obviously an outstanding student, even if I disagreed with much of what she said. But students are allowed to "try on thinking." Of course, Hillary's not running against Michelle.