Is President Obama stealing from Gov. Christie?

BY PAM LOBLEY

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

NOW THAT'S FUNNY

Governor Chris Christie has implied that President Barack Obama has copied the phrase "big things" from him and used it in his own speeches.

Governor Christie first used the phrase "big things" in his State of the State address on January 11. The speech was called "It's Time To Do The Big Things", and the things refered to his three main priorities: fiscal discipline, education reform, and controlling pension and health benefits costs.

President Obama used those same words in his State of the Union address, when he referred admiringly to Center Rock, the Pennsylvania-based company that made the drilling equipment that freed the trapped Chilean miners. He said, "We proved that Center Rock is a little company, but they do big things."

The President went on to parlay the phrase into larger context by saying "From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That's how we win the future. . . . We do big things."

In analyzing that speech, Joe Scarborough on MSNBC pointed out that Obama might have also stolen "win the future" from Newt Gingrich, who wrote a book called "Winning the Future".

Actually, Newt Gingrich stole "Winning the Future" from Walt Whitman High School's Class of 1979. That was our graduation theme, and it was on all the posters.

The stealing thing gets worse. On closer inspection, it appears that President Obama also copied from Governor Christie the words "and", "spending", "belt", "legislature", "America", "dog", "porch" and "e-book". In turn, it seems Governor Christie has been reading some old Winston Churchill speeches and has lifted the words, "change", "look", "distant", "fiscal", "jobs", "tea", "their", and "seat back".

Former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak has apparently been studying the speeches of Vice-President Joe Biden and has been heard to use the words "oops", "sorry", and "regrettably." Charlie Sheen has been cribbing from Tiger Woods' press statements and is plagiarizing such words at "hooker", "alimony", and "Bambi".

Face it, there's no such thing as a new thought. It's not just words, but ideas, that are being stolen. Governor Christie, with his whole "we're already too far in debt and we can't afford anything" attitude is not so original. He totally got that from my Dad.

Pam Lobley writes the "Now That's Funny" column. Sign up for her mailing list at pamlobley.com.