[Vision2020] Joseph Biden’s Foreign Policy Experience

No Weatherman no.weatherman at gmail.com
Wed Oct 1 17:04:51 PDT 2008


The most important foreign policy decision Joseph Biden ever made was
to plagiarize a speech written by the leader of the British Labour
Party, Neil Kinnock, in 1987. It sunk his presidential aspirations:

In September 1987, the campaign ran into trouble when he was accused
of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British
Labour Party. Kinnock's speech included the lines:

"Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to
get to university? [Then pointing to his wife in the audience] Why is
Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be
able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were
thick?"

While Biden's speech included the lines:

"I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe
Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? [Then
pointing to his wife in the audience] Why is it that my wife who is
sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever
go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright?
Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a
college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?"

Though Biden had cited Kinnock as the source for the formulation many
times before, he made no reference to the original source at the
August 23 Iowa State Fair debate in question or in another appearance.
While political speeches often appropriate ideas and language from
each other, Biden's use came under more scrutiny because he somewhat
distorted his own family's background in order to match Kinnock's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden#1988

And 1987 was not the first time smokin' Joe got caught peeking at
someone else's paper:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3DB143FF93BA2575AC0A961948260

Call me an anonymous nattering nabob of negativity, but I remember
just a few years ago many of the academics in this community signed a
petition condemning plagiarism:

http://www.tomandrodna.com/notonthepalouse/The_Plagiarism_Flyer.htm

Does Joe Biden's chronic plagiarism say anything about his character
and, if so, does it affect his judgment in matters of real foreign
policy, national security, or even the economy?



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