John McCain Plagiarizes Himself

McCain's major speech on housing was panned, so he's trying again today on foreign policy. If you want, you can read the whole thing here.

But in the meantime, check this out. Here's an excerpt from McCain's speech in Los Angeles today.

"The lives of a nation's finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted; economies are damaged; strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict.... However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us."

And now check out a paragraph from a 2001 editorial McCain wrote for the Wall Street Journal:

"The lives of a nation's finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted, economies are damaged. Strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that will be lost when war claims its wages from us."

That's exactly the same. I appreciate McCain's sobriety about war, but it's time to get a new speech writer. And it probably isn't good to send such a strong suggestion that McCain's thinking hasn't changed in seven years.