Aug 11th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Crowdsourced Foreign Policy
It seems John McCain’s statement on Georgia was partially lifted from a Wikipedia entry on the country. Given that McCain, by his own admission, can’t use the internet it’s a bit of an ironic situation though perhaps it counts as progress of some sort.
38 Responses to “Crowdsourced Foreign Policy”
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August 11th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Silly season indeed. This has got to be one of the stupidest accusations of plagiarism I’ve seen.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
This has got to be one of the stupidest accusations of plagiarism I’ve seen.
I’ve busted people for less.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
It’s better than McCain’s policy on the Iraqi-Pakistani border situation. And at least he’s not counting on Czechoslovakia to join the coalition of the willing.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I bet his pool is clean but he’s not the one messing around with the chlorine.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
lamest website design ever. I feel like this should be a gaming magazine and not a poliblog.
also: why isn’t there an obvious link to CAP?
August 11th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I’m with Weichi on this one. Perhaps McCain’s speechwriter should’ve written: “Historically, Germany, Zambia and Indonesia all adopted the faith founded by Jesus of Nazareth well after the nation whose name begins with “G” and which is now being attacked by Russia did. In fact, Zambia and Indonesia never adopted that particular spiritual program as a matter of policy.”
That would get the point across, and would, in terms of style, diction and intellectual content, seem sufficiently safe.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
In one of my classes, I probably wouldn’t send a student to the dean for this (but I could, and I’d received institutional support for doing so — this *is* plagiarism, as any university would define it), but I’d give them a zero on the assignment.
This isn’t a university, though. How big of a deal is it that one of McCain’s speechwriters is a blatant plagiarist? Fire or demote the idiot and move on.
I guess what it shows is what we already know; that McCain & company are anti-intellectual and revel in their own ignorance. I mean, wikipedia? If I was the speechwriter I’d, you know, read the introduction to a book on Georgia, or something…
August 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
lamest website design ever. I feel like this should be a gaming magazine and not a poliblog.
I gotta say, the sans-serif type and cramped layout on this new site really diminishes its readability. Scanning through the comments here is real work.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
This guy apparently needed to be there.
Who knew XKCD could tell the future?
August 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
“I’ve busted people for less.”
Really? Which one? The second, I guess? At worst it strikes me as a loose paraphrase of a totally conventional historical narrative.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Really? Which one? The second, I guess?
Yeah, but once you establish that link, the first and third follow by comparison.
I’m a googler. When the quality of writing doesn’t match my expectations of the writer, I throw a random sentence into the search engine and see where else it comes up.
Again, the larger point here isn’t that McCain’s copywriter needs to be sent to the principal’s office, it’s that (1) the McCain campaign is intellectually lazy, and (2) McCain doesn’t really have a foreign policy advantage over “ZOMG!!Only 18 days in the Senate?!”* Obama.
*on vacation in red country this week, and this is the chatter I’m hearing, along with “deficit? what does that have to with me?”
August 11th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
meh, As much as I wish this were otherwise, there’s no there there
August 11th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Again, the larger point here….[is]…that…McCain doesn’t really have a foreign policy advantage over “ZOMG!!Only 18 days in the Senate?!”* Obama.
He sure doesn’t, but that he didn’t rewrite his historical sourcing enough for academic standards has nothing to do with it. Would his general policy outlook be more palatable to you if the language of his speeches was more pristine?
August 11th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
From the NYT
This feeling was especially true among Russian specialists, who said that, whatever the merits of Mr. Saakashvili’s positions, his impulsiveness and nationalism sometimes outstripped his common sense.
No wonder John McCain feels a kinship.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Would his general policy outlook be more palatable to you if the language of his speeches was more pristine?
Well, I’m already not voting for him, James, for reasons that have nothing to do with how well/poorly he runs his campaign.
Nevertheless, the “Washington experience = foreign policy wisdom” narrative is pretty much the only thing McCain’s getting to stick right now. Call me Karl Rove, but I think opportunities to undermine McCain’s so-called strength, even if they are largely meaningless, are the keys to winning this campaign.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Well, maybe I’ll grant intellectual laziness, but I dunno. You’re going to go somewhere for historical background, you look at wikipedia, you check cia factbook, britannica, they agree, so you write your sentences and move on. What are they supposed to do, spend a few hours in the library reading georgian history books?
Maybe you could argue that McCain should have someone on staff that knows enough georgian history on their own to write this without having to refer to any sources.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Different topic, but the line about georgia being “one of the the first” officially christian countries struck me as really strange. Why did he even mention that? It’s not relevant to anything. Russia is christian too, so it can’t be some kind of christians vs heathens thing. And don’t we view state-sanctioned religions as a bad thing in the US?
August 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
the line about georgia being “one of the the first” officially christian countries struck me as really strange. Why did he even mention that?
The point is that they’re not Muslims, and thus worthy of our support.
Russia is christian too
Russians are godless communists, as anybody with an American education knows.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Hilarious.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hey now, Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit — maybe McCain was the piece’s original author!
Yes, this is clearly plagarism. But the real problem isn’t his violation of widely accepted intellectual norms. It’s that the dude doesn’t have anyone on his staff who knows enough about Georgia to write a statement about it **without** going to Wikipedia to learn why it’s important. And that is a big deal, especially when a major part of his platform is foreign relations generally and bluster about how to contain Russia imperialism especially.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
What are they supposed to do, spend a few hours in the library reading georgian history books?
Yes. Intellectual laziness, in this context, is no trivial matter. These people aren’t trying to becoming county commisioners: this is the presidency of the United States we’re talking about here. Your speechwriters should have the access and resources to become conversant in any subject relevant to the presidency. You should have some intellectuals on staff who are capable of learning about any given subject on short notice (this crisis has been goin on for several days now!). Here’s a critical point that you’re missing: Wikipedia, like any encyclopia, is absolutely riddled with errors. That’s fine up to a point: encyclopedias are where you go to get a trivializing overview of a subject. But, again, the presidency isn’t the place where you want trivializing overviews to be an acceptable level of knowledge on a critical subject (for the love of God, this is the kind of conflict which could, in theory, if mismanaged *just* right, lead to a nuclear war).
Now, suddenly, academic standards are relevant. Georgia is an ally, an important ally, apparently, in Iraq, and is strategically located as a starting point. Don’t you think you should have somebody on staff who understands it at a level above that of a wikipedia entry?
I’ll grant you that a little plagiarism as such in a campaign document isn’t such a big deal (even if, as an academic, it drives me nuts) — but if you can’t bother to really learn something about the country that you’re discussing, you’re in trouble.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
1) What’s interesting about John McCain is that calling him the Paris Hilton of politics would be deeply unfair to Paris Hilton. I mean, sure, there’s some similarity. Both seem to think they are entitled to acceptance because of who they are –not for what they have done. Both like the limelight.
2) But Paris, to her credit, simply enjoys life. She doesn’t dabble in important matters or pretend to be a national leader. She may party –but she doesn’t send 4000 men to their deaths in IRaq just to curry favor with some rich men. She would laugh at the idea. And Paris shows no signs of McCain’s disease –wanting the glory but not accepting the responsibility.
3) Plus, Paris doesn’t have to WHORE for money, the way McCain does. When she reaches Cindy McCain’s age, Paris too, however, may buy someone like McCain.
4) Given the major problems this country is now facing, one has to ask: What has John McCain been doing all these 24 years? Playacting? Pretending to be a leader?
The Commander and Executive Officer of the aircraft Carrier USS George Washington were recently relieved of command simply because a fire broke out on that carrier due to sloppy housekeeping. Why don’t we demand that same accountability from our civilian leaders?
August 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
harvey,
OK, I still think using the term plagiarism is stupid in this instance, but I do understand your broader point. A guy running for president – especially one who claims to have an advantage on foreign policy – should have a staff that doesn’t need to rely on wikipedia, even to provide some color for a speech.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Silly season indeed. This has got to be one of the stupidest accusations of plagiarism I’ve seen.
Matt didn’t actually make a charge of plagiarism. He was commenting on the irony of the internet-challenged McCain getting information from the web.
I find additional irony in that the McCain people didn’t get their info from Phyllis Shlafly’s boy Andrew & the fine folk at conservapedia.com instead of the leftist partisans at Wiki.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Matt, I’m pretty sure you know there isn’t anything wrong with political speeches being plagiarized, it’s an improper application of an academic norm to another field. Is the problem supposed to be that it’s plagiarized from wikipedia as opposed to another source? That also seems silly.
I would have preferred more Olympic basketball blogging to this post, Spain-Lithuania, perhaps
August 11th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
The third accusation seems like a reach to me. The first two would be academic misconduct if this were an academic setting, but this clearly isn’t an academic setting. I think the bar for accusations of “plagiarism” in political speeches should be set pretty high. This wasn’t a case of cribbing someone else’s carefully crafted prose… it’s just a dry collection of widely known historical details.
The point here is that the guy who’s running for President on a platform of foreign policy experience is getting his foreign policy talking points from Wikipedia. Or rather, his aides are searching the internet for foreign policy talking points because he doesn’t know how to use a computer. That’s a relevant point for public discussion… certainly more so than the question of whether John Edwards’ love child somehow hurts Obama.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
the guy who’s running for President on a platform of foreign policy experience is getting his foreign policy talking points from Wikipedia.
As I understand it, a “talking point” is, in present-day politics, a policy slogan or “meme” (e.g., “Democrats want to raise your taxes”) designed to be repeated over and over via any media available.
“Georgia is one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion” is not a talking point, but a statement of generally-agreed-to-be-true fact.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:39 am
So the candidate who touts his foreign policy advantage cribs his expertise from Wikipedia just like the average high-schooler doing his homework. It’s arguably an advantage over the crew currently in office.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
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