Guest Comment: Joe, is that really you?

Barack Obama needed someone with experience and credibility for his vice president running mate since he has none of his own, so he chose Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. But, does Barack know who or what he really got?

With Sen. Biden’s inability to verbalize his own thoughts, he regularly turns to others such as the following from the great orator and British politician, Neil Kinnock. When caught for his plagiarism after his campaign speech, he denied it, so judge for yourself but, in doing so please recall the words of Marguerite Gardiner: “Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower.”

Neil Kinnock:

“Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys the first women in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because our predecessors were thick? Does anyone really think that they didn’t get what we had because they didn’t have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.”

Sen. Joe Biden:

“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? 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? No, it’s not because they weren’t as smart. It’s not because they didn’t work as hard. It’s because they didn’t have a platform upon which to stand.”

Sen. Biden so respected Robert Kennedy that he “borrowed” many passages from his speeches and used them as his own until he was caught in the act too many times. One could almost forgive Joe for these trespasses during the heat of campaigns, but his thievery came at a much earlier age. He flunked his law school class at Harvard for plagiarizing five full pages from a legal document for an exam. Remember, this was when he was a young man at Harvard and not some kid in high school.

I’m sure that when Obama asks Biden for his opinion on an issue he will, no doubt, wonder really whose opinion he’ll be getting.

“Most plagiarists have not the taste to select, the industry to acquire, nor the skill to improve.” Charles Colton

Gary Meinert and his wife Karlyn spend six months in Green Valley and six months at their lake home in far northern Wisconsin. The views expressed are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.