Obama defends speeches amid Clinton plagiarism claim

Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed over campaign speeches, Cuba, and healthcare in a mostly civil debate two weeks ahead of the critical Texas primary election.

In the most heated moments, Mr Obama said the former First Lady was engaging in a “silly season in politics” while Mrs Clinton was booed as she accused the young Illinois senator of plagiarism, saying it represented “change you can Xerox”.

Mr Obama is enjoying significant momentum from a string of 11 straight victories, his latest among Democratic voters abroad, while Mrs Clinton’s campaign is struggling after failing to win anything since Super Tuesday at the start of the month.

Texas, the biggest primary contest left in the race to the White House, votes on March 4 and could prove critical in deciding who will be the Democratic party’s nominee.

In a 90-minute televised debate at the University of Texas in Austin, Mr Obama defended his “inspirational” campaign and some “pretty good” speeches, saying “words matter and the implication that they don’t I think diminishes how important it is to speak to the American people directly about making America as good as its promise”.

He said Americans needed both hope and inspiration, but added: “I think actions do speak louder than words, which is why over 20 years of public service I have acted a lot.”

He listed some of his achievements and went on to call recent accusations by the Clinton campaign that he had plagiarised some of his speeches – he used the same line delivered by his national co-chairman and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick in an earlier speech – “silly”.

“We start getting into silly season in politics and I think people start getting discouraged by it,” he said.

He added he had “very specific, concrete detailed proposals” which he had been working on for many years.

“What we shouldn’t be spending time doing is tearing each other down. We should be spending time lifting the country up.”

But Mrs Clinton said: “I think if your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words.

“And lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in, it’s change you can Xerox.”

Mrs Clinton was booed for this comment as Mr Obama said: “That’s just not true,” to which Mrs Clinton responded: “Oh, but Barack, it is”.

The clash came half-way through the debate, which had otherwise been civil as the candidates highlighted their differences, despite agreeing that their policies were “95% the same”.

At the end of the debate, the pair enjoyed a rousing standing ovation as they shook hands and Mrs Clinton declared she was “absolutely honoured” to be in this contest with Mr Obama.

“Whatever happens we’re going to be fine,” she said.

“We have strong support from out families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same things about the American people, and that’s what this election should be about.”

It came immediately after what many pundits saw as Mrs Clinton’s finest moment in the debate.

Referring to challenges and obstacles she had had to overcome in the past, she said: “All of the challenges that I have had, they are nothing compared to what I see happening in the lives of Americans every single day.”

Talking about America’s wounded soldiers, she said: “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.”

During the debate, the two White House hopefuls disagreed over whether, as president, they would be willing to sit down with incoming Cuban president Raul Castro after Fidel Castro’s resignation this week.

Mrs Clinton, 60, said she would refuse to take part in talks until political and economic reforms were implemented, whereas Mr Obama, 46, said he would meet “without preconditions”, but added there would need to be “preparations” first and the US agenda for such a session would include human rights.

On domestic issues, the two senators argued about health care, a bedrock issue of the campaign, despite only minor differences in their objectives – Mrs Clinton would make universal healthcare mandatory, while Mr Obama would offer it to anyone who wanted it.

Mrs Clinton said repeatedly that Mr Obama’s plan would leave 15 million Americans without cover, but he accused her of mishandling the issue by working in secrecy when her husband was in the White House.

“I’m going to do things differently,” he said.

“We can have great plans, but if we don’t change how the politics is working in Washington, then neither of our plans are going to happen.”