Mr. Plagiarism

I don't talk politics often on this blog, but this is unmissable. The rumors are running rampant that Senator Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joseph Biden as his running mate.

For the last twenty years I've known Sen. Biden as Mr. Plagiarism. Here's a scan of from a paper I wrote 20 years ago during my senior year of college. Click on the image for a better view.

 

At the time Biden gave this speech he was trying to win his party's nomination. His well publicized plagiarism sent him home in shame. But, he's back.

It's so amazing what this speech tells us about Joseph Biden:

1. He's a documented plagiarist. You can read it above. I won't be surprised if clips of the speeches end up on YouTube.
2. He's stupid. When Biden steals from others, he doesn't choose unknown people in secluded corners of the world...he plagiarizes from the United Kingdom's Neil Kinnock, the Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party (1983-1992). How dumb can you get?!?!!
3. He's a liar. The statements in Neil Kinnock's speech are the truth. The plagiarism in Biden's speech are lies.

Time magazine wrote of Biden's plagiarism:

• "it underscored the prior concerns that he (Biden) was a shallow vessel for other people's ideas."^a
• "a candidate (Biden) of style rather than substance."^b

According to FamousPlagiarists.com, Biden also failed a law course because he plagiarized in a paper and they add:

"Biden initially denied any wrongdoing, claiming that this was just an inadvertent lack of acknowledgement. Yet there were other instances of rhetorical borrowing from speeches made by Robert F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. And the fact that Biden had given other speeches using the Kinnock passages without acknowledgment suggested that the lifting was more than just an inadvertent oversight."^c

Yes, these things happened twenty years ago, but it is who Biden is. And only last year, Biden demonstrated he's still a shallow vessel when he said: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."^d Hmm, can anyone say Jesse Jackson? CNN used to have a video clip of Biden saying this as a link from this page, but they've replaced the video with speculation on who Obama is choosing. (Is CNN covering up for Biden and Obama?)

And this, Mr. Plagiarism, is who Sen. Obama thinks is the best person available to run on his ticket? Mr. Plagiarism. I wonder if Senator John McCain will choose as badly. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Footnotes:
⁵ "A Case of Plagiarized Passion?," Newsweek, 21 Sept. 1987, p. 35.
⁶ Ibid.
^a Walter Shapiro, "Biden's Familiar Quotations," Time, 28 Sept. 1987, p. 17.
^b George J. Church, "And then there were six," Time, 5 Oct. 1987, p. 24.
^c http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm
^d http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/31/biden.obama/

Comments

[Laura]

Great, Missy! Ah, the (bad) Biden memories that are starting to flood back to my memory from the recesses of time...I'd forgotten he plagiarised more than once!

For months I thought Obama couldn't lose. Now I can't see how he could win.

We'll see!

Laura

[Missy]

The media certainly wants them to win, so we'll see. But yes, Biden is all bad memories.

[Kevin]

I agree, I can't believe Obama picked Biden. Biden is everything Obama claims he wants to change. A poor choice, no doubt about it.

Kev

[delmer]

I thought I was the only one who remembered this. I used to tell a joke that went, "As Joe Biden used to say, 'Four score and seven years ago ...'"

(It wasn't a great joke.)

[Missy]

LOL!