Change You Can Google!

I thought Hillary really helped herself in tonight's debate, even after a mid-debate negative jab: "you know, lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox." The audience booed. She made a nice recovery and kept improving on to her effective closing remarks, which show-cased some honesty, as Peggy Noonan suggested. She was so disarming at one point it almost sounded like a concession ("no matter what happens in this contest -- and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored.").

Yet afterwards, something kept tapping on my shoulder about her closing few lines, so I used what the internet gods gave me. I've never before known plagiarism to be leavened by irony:

Hillary Clinton: “You know, whatever happens, we’re going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same thing about the American people. And that’s what this election should be about.”
Democratic Debate, 2-21-08

John Edwards: “What’s not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what’s at stake is whether America is going to be fine.”
Democratic Debate, 12-13-07

John Edwards: “I want to say this to everyone: with Elizabeth, with my family, with my friends, with all of you and all of your support, this son of a millworker’s gonna be just fine. Our job now is to make certain that America will be fine.”
Campaign Speech, 1-30-08

An added bonus:

Hillary Clinton: “You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.”
Democratic Debate, 02-21-08

Bill Clinton: “The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time."
Speech, 1992

What were her speech writers thinking?

(via Ruralvotes.com)