The endless Democratic party

(Via Salon News.)

Barack Obama liked the speech so much that he gave it twice at high-profile events in Indianapolis over the weekend. Following Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean on stage Sunday night at the Indiana Democratic Party’s fundraising gala, Obama repeated (at times word-for-word) the new campaign speech that he unveiled here Saturday morning. Some of the more pointed references to Hillary Clinton were stripped away for the Democratic dinner-theater crowd, but the essence of the speech remained unchanged.

What is significant is not Obama’s deliberate repetition (if self-plagiarism were a crime, there would not be enough jails to hold the candidates and the reporters who cover them). But rather, at a moment in the campaign when Obama is trying to right himself after the uproar over Jeremiah Wright, the Democratic frontrunner has deliberately chosen to offer the voters in Tuesday’s Indiana and North Carolina primaries more of the same.