Clinton camp says Obama's rhetoric "isn't his own"

By Susan Milligan, Globe staff

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Taking aim at one of Illinois Senator Barack Obama's greatest campaign strengths -- his ability to move voters with a powerful speech -- Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign has accused Obama of plagiarizing words from his friend and political ally, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

"Senator Obama is running on the strength of his rhetoric and the strength of his promises and, as we have seen in the last couple of days, he's breaking his promises and his rhetoric isn't his own," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, told reporters in a conference call on Monday.

Obama, as the Boston Globe detailed in an article in April 2007, has periodically used themes and even direct lines that echo speeches by Patrick, including the one cited by Clinton's campaign. Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, also worked closely with Patrick in his successful effort to become the Bay State's first African-American governor in 2006.

Obama used Patrick language again recently, remarking at a Milwaukee dinner on Saturday night that it was not true that ``words don't matter.''

```I have a dream' -- just words? 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' -- just words?"' Obama said at the event in Wisconsin, which holds a primary today. Those lines -- referring to a famous speech by civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the US Declaration of Independence -- are very similar to words Patrick uttered during his 2006 campaign.

Patrick, who has endorsed Obama and is campaigning for him, yesterday shrugged off the controversy as insignificant, while Obama acknowledged that he should have credited his Massachusetts friend but added that he and Patrick agreed not only on many issues but on the language to describe them..

``Senator Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language," Patrick said in the statement. "The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Senator Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did.''

Obama said Patrick was aware of his use of the governor's verbiage.

"I was on the stump. He had suggested that we use these lines and I thought they were good lines," Obama told reporters on a trip to Ohio before returning to Wisconsin.

Further, Obama added, the New York senator has borrowed from him as well, including a couple of his signature phrases.

"I really don't think this is too big of a deal," Obama said. "When Senator Clinton says 'It's time to turn the page' in one of her stump speeches or says she's 'fired up and ready to go,' I don't think that anybody suggests that she's not focused on the issues that she's focused on."

Politicians commonly pick up on each other's themes and even words -- especially if they see the approach is working. Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey was an early proponent of health care reform in 1992, but it was Bill Clinton who developed the idea into a central campaign theme and won his race in large part because of it.

While Obama hasmade ``change'' a buzzword of his campaign, Clinton, along with former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Republicans Mitt Romney, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, have thrown around the popular word on the trail.

The Clinton campaign's accusation comes at a time when the two colleagues are locked in a close battle for the nomination. Obama is favored to win today's contest in Hawaii, where he grew up, while polls in Wisconsin's Democratic race show a smaller lead for the Illinois senator.

Both campaigns are fighting hard ahead of the march 4 contests in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont. Clinton, who has won a strong majority of low-income voters in most primaries, is believed by political analysts to have an edge in Ohio, which is struggling economically. Clinton's popularity among Latinos also gives her an edge in Texas, although a poll released yesterday showed her just two percentage points ahead of Obama.

The Illinois lawmaker yesterday dismissed charges that he was -- as Clinton put it at a Texas rally last week -- ``all hat and no cattle,'' saying he has been able to energize new voters with his speeches.

``I make no apologies for being able to talk good,'' Obama told a crowd of about 6,000 at Youngstown State University, drawing chuckles at what was apparently a deliberate grammatical error.

Obama repeated his stump speech line about being labeled a ``hope-monger,'' but before the Youngstown crowd, he made an admission: ``Actually, I made up the hope-mongering,'' Obama said, owning up to embellishing the criticism of his campaign theme.