Hillary Clinton and her campaign advisers have decided it wise to accuse Barack Obama of plagiarism. Mass. Governor Deval Patrick is the man Obama allegedly bit off in a recent speech; only problem is that Obama and Patrick are friends, and Patrick has already leaped to Obama’s defense. From the National Ledger…

“Sen. Obama and I are longtime friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language… Given the recent attacks from Sen. Clinton, I applaud him [for] responding in just the way he did.”

Bottom line: Hillary is getting desperate. Her campaign is losing steam and, as a result, she has lowered herself to petty mudslinging. It’s only a matter of time before she officially mails it in. At least, that’s the hope.

The current brouhaha brewing over Barack Obama’s lifting of a particularly inspiring passage of a speech Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick gave during his own campaign in 2006 certainly seems like making a mountain out of a molehill. But of course we all remember this, from 2004:

Just saying.