The Weekly Bidenism

When last we left our brainless Vice President, he was busy lying about his educational background while slapping down a questioner at a campaign stop. You may recall that Biden tried to explain his lying outburst as mere exaggeration. . . apparently, in Joe’s world, exaggeration isn’t lying, and he exaggerates when he gets angry. So today, we test just how deep his untruthfulness goes. Get ready for The Weekly Bidenism.

It is August 23, 1987. Slow Joe is in the middle of a debate (with reality) when he whips out this little family history:

“Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? . . . Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest? Was it that they didn't work hard, my ancestors who worked in the coal mines of Northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours? It's because they didn't have a platform upon which to stand.”

But Biden wasn’t the first person in his family to attend college. Nor were his ancestors coal miners. So where did this come from? Check out the words from a political commercial by British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock:

“Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because our predecessors were thick? Was it because they were weak, those people who could work eight hours underground as coal miners and come up and play football, weak? It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.”

Yikes. So not only did Biden plagiarize this speech without attribution, but he tried to pass off Neil Kinnock’s personal history as his own!!

Following this incident, Biden was caught plagiarizing speeches from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphries, as well. He withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination on September 23, exactly one month after channeling Kinnock.

A bitter Biden would later state, “All I had to say was ‘Like Kinnock.’ If I’d just said those two words, ‘Like Kinnock,’ and I didn’t. It was my fault, nobody else’s fault.” It was indeed your fault Joe, but it goes well beyond simple plagiarism. In fact, adding “like Kinnock” would do nothing to change the fact that you fabricated your family history.

Joe, however, never understood how sick it was for him to fake his family history. Indeed, he found the whole thing amusing, as evidenced by his handing Kinnock a bound copy of Biden’s speeches in January 1998, and jokingly telling the assembled reporters that Kinnock “was welcome to use [any of Biden’s speeches] whenever he liked, with or without attribution.”

He also introduced Kinnock to his Senate staff in August 2008 by saying: “Hey, you people! Do you know this guy? He used to be my greatest speechwriter.”

So much for remorse.


BONUS BIDENISM

With the election on Tuesday resulting in Republican Robert McConnell crushing Democrat Creigh Deeds by 18% in Virginia, it’s worth pointing out this little puzzler from Slow Joe on October 8, 2009, wherein Joe seems to accuse Creigh of lacking faith. . . a great thing to say at a fundraiser for Deeds:

“I hope to God you understand this race is winnable.”

Maybe not.