![By Marc Nozell from Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA (20160208-DSC08093) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/scribler.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Melania_Knauss-Trump-260x300.jpg?resize=260%2C300)
By Marc Nozell from Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA
I feel sorry for Melania Trump. I truly do. Last night was the first opportunity the country had to get to know Mrs. Trump. I thought she did a wonderful job giving her speech. It should have been a great night for her. However, there was a problem. A small portion of her speech was copied from the speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
This should have been a minor offense in political terms. The Trump campaign could have easily made this story a short lived one. Melania is not a native English speaker. She is not a candidate. She is the spouse of a candidate. This would have been so easy to handle. This morning they could have issued an apology. The statement could have explained it was a mistake and they would be more careful in the future to ensure such copying did not occur. End of story.
Is that what the Trump campaign did? No. They made it into a huge issue by denying that the copying ever occurred. Acting so offended that such a comparison has even been made. Thus turning what should have been a small story into a huge debacle. The spotlight is firmly on Melania, whom I truly believe did not intend to plagiarize Mrs. Obama, and it did not need to be this way. Even if you do believe that no plagiarism occurred, the better choice was to make the short apology. Doing anything else just does not make sense.
The question I have regarding this whole event involves the competence of the entire Trump team. Are they just completely unaware of how politics works? Do they not know what needs to be done to ensure that a small story remains small? Or is Donald Trump that aware of the desires of his base and he does not care what anyone else thinks? I really don’t know. I have struggled this entire election cycle to understand Donald Trump and his campaign. I have not been able to find an answer to any of my questions.
As I said earlier, I truly feel sorry for Melania Trump. She is now the focus of a lot of negativity in the press when she truly did not need to be. I don’t know why Donald Trump did not choose to do something simple to put the spotlight back where it belongs, this week’s Republican National Convention.
What do you think about the entire Melania Trump controversy? Leave a comment and let me know.
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