The Obama campaign so far has sparkled with idealism. If we want a cliche to characterize the campaign so far we might say, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”

The Clinton campaign is out on thin ice and starting to behave like their motto is “Nice guys finish last.”

Michael Dukakis forced Joe Biden out of the running for the 1988 Democratic nomination with a slur regarding plagiarism.

In 1987, Joe Biden ran as a Democratic presidential candidate. When the campaign began, he was considered a frontrunner because of his moderate image. However, the campaign ended when he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party. Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one where he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by Kinnock, with only minor modifications. “Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go a university? Why is it that my wife . . . is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? . . . Is it because they didn’t work hard? My ancestors who worked in the coal mines of northeast Pennsylvania and would come after 12 hours and play football for four hours? It’s because they didn’t have a platform on which to stand.” After Biden withdrew from the race it was learned that he had correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions. He failed to do so, however, in the Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters (with a parallel video of Kinnock) by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee. “…when the truth emerged Dukakis was forced to fire his campaign manager, John Sasso, and political director, Paul Tully – the two who had orchestrated the maneuver,” but Biden’s campaign could not recover.

My question: How will Hillary Clinton discipline her campaign to represent the values we admire? Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director, accused Obama of plagiarizing from a speech by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. US News and World Report says,

Though the media continue to explore Sen. Barack Obama’s use of phrases similar to those used by his friend and political ally, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, media coverage of the flap is turning increasingly negative toward the Clinton campaign. This morning, new reports call the Clinton campaign’s effort to distance itself from the emergence of the story “disingenuous” and “clearly false,” while commentators have largely downplayed the seriousness of Obama’s offense.

[tags]liar liar pants on fire, barack is rubber and hillary is glue, Wolfson steps over line, Clinton campaign moral bankruptcy, former WalMart board member runs filthy campaign, what else is new, Clinton the new Dukakis, nominate her and lose[/tags]