http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3822433Oh my.
Most of it's the Bostonian Drunkard quoting from wikipedia, so one can read it without fear.
WilliamPitt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-19-08 03:07 PM
Original message
If it is Biden, should we be concerned about that 1988 plagiarism thing?
(honest question, I'm curious what you folks think...will this be a problem? It ended his run in '88, but that was then and this is etc etc)
In 1987, Joe Biden ran as a Democratic presidential candidate, formally declaring his candidacy in Wilmington, Delaware on June 9, 1987 at the Wilmington train station. In Biden's speech, he challenged Americans to step beyond the materialism of the Reagan years. When the campaign began, Biden was considered a potentially strong candidate because of his moderate image, his supposed appeal to Baby Boomers, his fundraising appeal (Biden's $1.7 million raised in the first quarter of 1987 was more than any other candidate, including the then front-runner, Gary Hart), his high profile position as chair of the Senate Judiciary committee during the Robert Bork confirmation hearings, and, perhaps above all, his soaring oratory.
However, the campaign ended when he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party. Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one where he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by Kinnock, with only minor modifications. “Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go a university? Why is it that my wife . . . is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? . . . Is it because they didn't work hard? My ancestors who worked in the coal mines of northeast Pennsylvania and would come after 12 hours and play football for four hours? It's because they didn't have a platform on which to stand.â€
After Biden withdrew from the race it was learned that he had correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions. He failed to do so, however, in the Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters (with a parallel video of Kinnock) by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee. Dukakis fired John Sasso, his campaign manager and long-time Chief of Staff, but Biden's campaign could not recover.
A speech that Biden had given to California Democrats earlier in the year contained passages from a Bobby Kennedy speech, but it was reported that Biden pollster and strategist Patrick Caddell had slipped the lines into the speech without Biden's knowledge. This however was hardly Biden's only problem. It was also revealed that he had plagiarized an article when he was in law school.
It's mostly sycophantic admirers of the Bostonian Drunkard responding, but then, oh damn, she shows up, after having promised to STFU until Wednesday:
sfexpat2000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-19-08 03:14 PM
Response to Original message
11. I'd be more worried about his off- the-cuffedness.
Most people think plagarism is a flu virus but everyone gets jokes about people over the hill -- especially the people over the hill.
Can't keep her yapper shut, Doug's ex-wife.
