As someone who works in an academic library, I find the comments in the Fray dismissing Biden's conduct as insignificant and a distant memory to be really, really sad. It is not just the nonsense that criticizing Biden--or Obama for selecting him--is somehow the equivalent the supporting McCain or Bush, but the belief that being a dishonest person is fine as long as it is in the past or when compared to something completely irrelevant like the Iraq War.

Intellectual honesty is a lynchpin of not just the academic world but also of our society at large. If there is no trust and integrity how can their be social cohesiveness and progress?

It does not matter that he cheated in college back in the 60s or pretended to be someone else in the 80s. The point is he was permitted to graduate and stay in politics when shown to be a fraud. To me, "20 years ago" does not sound like a distant past, but the realization that the American population is willing to support mountebanks as long as they reflect their political beliefs.

Is the "change" Obama is talking about? You know, we wouldn't have lies like the ones surrounding the Iraq War if we as a nation demanded intellectual integrity from ALL politicians.