Update: According to TMZ, the McCain campaign is (not surprisingly) blaming an intern.

Oh man. This is a priceless intersection of politics and food. David Weiner, from Huffington Post, breaks the news that many of the recipes listed on the “Cindy’s Recipes” page on John McCain’s campaign site (and listed under the header “McCain Family Recipes”) are lifted, word-for-word, from the Food Network website.

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Recipes for foods are pretty similar, no matter who is making them. That’s why it is so odd that she would try and pass these recipes off as her own. If she had just listed these recipes or dishes as “Cindy’s Favorites” instead of “Cindy’s Recipes” there wouldn’t be an issue. Or even if they are listed under “Cindy’s Recipes” they could have just cited Food Network as the source.

Serious Eats reports that the McCain website has already taken the recipes down. But who in the age of Google, Google Cache, and bloggers with too much free time isn’t aware of how easy it is to get caught lifting stuff word for word?

Check out one of the identical, and I mean WORD FOR WORD identical recipes listed on the McCain campaign website:

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The question now is, why do something like this? Lazinesses by a staffer? Or is there actually some political strategy involved? Does Cindy McCain think she needs to prove herself as adequately domestic? Is it really that important to proclaim that she has her own recipes for things? Is it that awful to just admit she uses recipes out of a book or off a website like most of America probably does?

This piece of information may have just swung my vote against John McCain for good. I’ll admit that I am terrified of his fiery dedication to pre-emptive war as a foreign policy tool that could lead to thousands more American deaths…but that fact was just making me LEAN against voting for him. But now we find out he has a wife who plagiarizes recipes? Yikes. I can’t possibly vote for the man now.

Images via Care.org, hnn.org and Huffington Post.

17 Responses

  1. Nora

    Maybe her surgeon accidentally snipped the saggy muscle that helps us to remember not to plagiarize.

    Reply
  2. barred owl

    this is SO funny to me because just last night i was browsing through cole slaw recipes on foodnetwork.com and the site kept suggesting that i look at the Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw!
    Then i was skimming this post and those words jumped out at me again!
    HA!
    plagiarism stinks. i always credit the recipes on my blog (barredowl.wordpress.com – including the cole slaw i ended up creating based on the ingredients in my fridge) and so does every other respected food blogger out there.
    For shame Cindy…

    Reply
  3. Leigh

    A lot of people really don’t feel that recipes are any sort of intellectual property. I know, it’s ridiculous. Someone made those recipes up, tested them, tweaked them, ate dozens of failed attempts, until they were perfect (or nearly) for us. To take credit for someone else’s work is awful.

    Even just changing an ingredient or two fails to give you rights to post a recipe as your own (in a perfect world, anyway). So many just BIZARRE scandals this political season. And we’re still months away from the election! What will be next?! I do not want to know; maybe I’ll disconnect the internet and sell my TV until December. Maybe March next year, to give time for recount squabbles to be settled.

    Reply
  4. shatraw

    i think the best part is the Cindy wants us to think that “Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw” is an old family recipe, dating back to the early generations of McCains who escaped to the terrible potato family with just the clothes on their backs and this tasty recipe which was clearly created 15 years ago by some hack chef in a California seafood chain restaurant.

    Reply
  6. Ruca Bangs

    the best part is that this changed Eick’s vote! Damn, son, your political standards are… well lets just say you have special interests.

    Reply
  8. Garnold

    Eick, how could you change your vote? You’re so easy it hurts!

    NEWSFLASH: Obama claims to enjoy Burger King’s fries more than McDonalds!

    Sigh. Guess I’m voting indepedent.

    Reply
  10. Eick

    I was a Republican. As recently as 5 or 6 years ago. But a lot of people used to be Republicans until the current Republican party went batshit insane with pre-emptive wars, torturing people, spying on their own citizens and spending our national debt into obilivion.

    Reply
  11. Taki

    Food for Thought: How do you know the Food Network didn’t plagarize Cindy McCain?!

    Reply
  12. Miranda

    Im doing a discussion on plagiarizm in my Engish Comp class and I was wondering if there was proof that Mrs. McCain was the one that actually took the recipe from hershey or was it her “good friend” that took it?

    Reply

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