Who Said What?

Last night at the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump gave a speech about her husband, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Ms. Trump is a naturalized U.S. citizen and Mr. Trump's third wife.

Initially, the speech seemed well-received, but some folks heard things they thought sounded familiar. It turns out that some parts of Ms. Trump's speech sound a lot like a speech by Michelle Obama in 2008. A hashtag has now surfaced to make fun of her and many people suggest this incident has some political importance. Several thoughts spring to mind:

1) Someone in modern media actually remembers 2008?

2) Considering that nearly 100% of modern political speeches are brim full of meaningless platitudes, does it really surprise anyone that they are being recycled? There's a difference between endless ways to say nothing and saying nothing endlessly. We live in days of the latter. You can even find a little Kindle book defining the stock phrases candidates use.

3) It would seem to me that a far more important aspect of Ms. Trump's speech was her ability to Rickroll an entire country.

4) As to political import, if there is someone out there who made up his or her mind to vote or not vote for Donald Trump based on whether or not his wife's speechwriter lacks the ability to design yet another disguise for empty boilerplate, that person is even less qualified to be president than is Mr. Trump. But no worries -- Mr. Trump would still be in a two-way tie for second.