Clipping Biden’s Hang Nail
Let’s clip this fast and nip it in the bud. Biden’s plagiarism charges that derailed his 1988 presidential campaign were nothing but a nuisance hang nail. http://
They were non-incidents, honest mistakes blown sanctimoniously way out of proportion in the context of a heated primary race with no holds barred. Whether driven by ratings, primary pressure, or just plain malice, the unfriendly media decided to "hang" him for a careless blunder and then "nail" the coffin shut on his promising presidential career path as penance for his alleged crime. What should have been a quick and exonerating review of the facts, turned into a lynching. Like yesterday’s hang nail, it’s time to put Biden’s plagiarism rap where it belongs – down the drain.
With a little 20-year hindsight, let’s look at what really happened. Senator Biden was charged with "borrowing" an oration from Neil Kinnock, the then-leader of the British Labour Party, for an Iowa stump speech, without citing its original source. Just a little bit of investigative reporting would have revealed that Biden had used the same speech many times prior with full attributions to Lord Kinnock. A little sensitivity would have uncovered the fact that Biden, as head of the Congressional Judiciary Committee, was in the vortex of the Bork hearings, one of the most controversial Supreme Court appointments in history. Every last minute leading up to the ill-fated speech was spent on the phone negotiating difficult points of law and diplomacy related to these hearings. Who couldn’t forgive a person for one time forgetting to reference Kinnock’s name, especially when under the intense pressure of working 24/7 as a public servant carrying the weight of America’s future on his back. Even though Senator Biden immediately realized his omission, admitted his mistake, and apologized profusely, through the curse of video, the damage was done.
And because the public loves to watch fallen heroes suffer their human frailties, instead of vindication, the press went for blood. The ace reporters journeyed another twenty years back to drudge dirt that would make the story stick. They dug up an old law school paper in which Biden had inaccurately and inadvertently (maybe even sloppily) cited a source incorrectly. He had been given a failing grade, and like a good student, he learned the proper rules of citation. Both the dean of Syracuse law school and his professor at the time are on the record saying the incident was a minor infraction and that he was fully cleared of all charges. Biden retook the class, graduated from law school and the rest of his 35 yeas of congressional duty is irreproachable history.
So if you encounter anyone who wants to hold Biden hostage to these exaggerated claims of wrongdoing, you might want to ask that person to first examine their own "hang nails" before they sit as judge, jury and executioner. Let’s be perfectly honest here . . . who among us doesn’t have a few "hang nails" we’re glad are long forgiven, forgotten and forever clipped?