...many times in other speeches. Shafer admits that (although if you blink you'll miss it). So for the speech at least, it's not intentional plagiarism--otherwise he wouldn't have attributed it previously and often.

This is a specific instance of forgetting to attribute the source. Nothing more.

The fact that Biden "became Kinnock" is actually testiment to the fact that he was "quoting" without any intention of subterfuge. If one is trying to pass off someone else's words as their own, they don't do an impression of the original speaker at the same time. Tends to give things away, no? But I have seen many speeches where one is aproximating the inflections of the original speaker as a way of paying homage.

Completely disingenous to call it intentional plagiarism, much less "creepy". Just an omission in a speech from a tired politician. Not the first or last.

This is the second time in about 24 hours that Slate has endeavored to bring this non-issue back from the dead, and in neither case have they explained why someone attempting to steal someone else's life would, all but one or two times, attribute the source.

What you are saying doesn't make any sense. The reason you're having to work so hard to bring this back is that nobody cares, and the reason nobody cares is that this was a case of forgetting to attribute something that he attributed almost every time he said it.

I'd really like to see 20-year-old speech screwups get a little less attention and the current issues of the day get a little more attention. Between this and the bizarre fixation on John Edwards, I have no idea what the editorial priorities are at Slate, but they seem awfully irrelevant to anything I care about.

It does matter and on a number of different levels.

Among them is the value Biden places on truth in presenting himself for our consideration. More importantly is his behavior when caught. We all make mistakes, the measure of a man is how he corrects them.

In a larger sense this is also an issue about the Boomer generation. See, there used to be a little thing called shame. When you purposely did something wrong publicly, society called you on it and you felt shame. It was an embarrassment to yourself and caused harm to your family's honor. Somehow the Boomers like Biden eliminated shame. Shameful actions are now a badge you wear and talk about openly until you state you are not going to talk about it an further as the issue is closed. Those mistakes should have cost Biden his Senate seat. He should have felt so poorly that the only personal recourse for redemention was to resign.

That aside - the guy cheated in law school. If there is anyone who can explain how that incident doesn't define his character I am open to it.

Good points, notimeforbackup. It is sad that the previous two posters do not consider plagiarism to be serious--not sure if it is cognitive dissonance or a failure of education in teaching how serious plagiarism is. Biden should have been expelled from law school for what he did. But taking on Kinnock's life is just bizarre.

You are absolutely right, notimeforbackup. No one seems to care if it's someone from their political party that did the screwing up. My cousin did not correctly site sources for a paper in graduate school and guess what happened to her? Went before the board and was expelled from the program. She only had one semester to go before getting her masters. I know my cousin well - it was an honest mistake. But she screwed up. And paid the price. I love how people brush off indiscretions or crimes of those they support, but go full-force against someone of the other party. It's so transparent, it's almost comical. (I'm speaking of some of the comments here, not the author of the article. I think he is spot on.)

Harmless plagarism would be using someone else's lofty rhetoric in a presentation. To lie about who you are and what you've done is simply lying. In this case lying is mixed with plagiarism.

Actor and pathological liar Steven Seagal claimed the life story of another man as his own. That was creepy plagiarism.

Did you read the article? Biden owned up to his mistakes like an adult and he's trying to get on with his life. What, you think he should have killed himself out of shame? Isn't it far better to pursue a life of public service the way Biden has done?

What would you have done if you were a law student, you didn't fully understand the whole footnote/citation/plagiarism thing, and you made a simple mistake? Would your roommate find you in the bathtub with your wrists slashed the next morning? Or would you face your problems head on, take responsibility for what you did, bite the bullet and get over it?

That's what Biden did.

Represents Boomers? Now there is a stretch. All eleventy bazzillion boomers.........all escaping shame and wearing the scarlet letter? And this by a man born before 1946!

Hmmm. Ronald Reagon - Iran Contra. Yes, he wore his responsibility and shame well. Or was he an honorary boomer? He was allowed to stay in office.

George W. a boomer for sure. But he didn't resign for his shameless acts. Perhaps you are basing your comment on him? Or, perhaps, Larry Craig? Talk about someone living as someone else!

"He owned up to his mistakes?" Uh, not really. His camp explained them away as his forgetting to cite the source. It was only when he was cornered by reporters that he was forced to admit that the stuff about his family was plagiarized, too. (And he refused to address one of the points. Ignoring it does not equate with "owning up.")

His camp explained them away as his forgetting to cite the source.

Seems like a pretty good explanation to me. The man forgot to say something he meant to say and did say on other occasions. Like you've never forgotten something in your life?

Shame on Biden for being human.

Are you insinuating that he deliberately neglected to cite the source? Then why did he cite the source on other occasions? I think his intentions were pretty clear and he meant to do the right thing.

...the point of the previous posts was that Biden did NOT "purposefully do something wrong publicly," but instead made a simple error.

It's boomers like Bush who appear to have "eliminated shame," when most people would be DEEPLY ashamed of invading foreign nations and murdering and torturing hundreds of thousands of their people.

Character? Shame? Talk to the Bush Administration about it.

"Seems like a pretty good explanation to me."

For crying out loud, s34738--The man said he was the first guy in his family to ever go to college...but he wasn't. Then he said the same thing about his wife...but she wasn't. You can't explain that away by his forgetting to cite a source.

I would wager that if a person lied like that to your face you would be incensed. But, for some reason, Biden lying to scores of people at the same time is perfectly fine and a sign that he's human. I don't think anyone ever doubted he was human. What they doubt is whether he's trustworthy. He would have made a good veep on the Edwards ticket, but why Obama would want him around is a mystery.

And, I have no doubt that if either major party enacted a "throw the bums out" approach they would within a very few years be unbeatable, almost regardless what their platform was. People are tired of the liars and the crooks on both sides. (And of the silly people who engage in moral gymnastics to defend their party while damning the other side who do the exact same thing.)

Well, AUGRAD -- does the fact that Syracuse investigated the incident and decided *not* to expel Biden suggest anything about the nature of the offense?

Unfortunately, I think it says alot about SU College of Law in the 70s. I am as big a booster of the Saltine Warriors as anyone and I seriously, seriously doubt anyone could get away with that now - I hope.

I suppose being the first in his family to go to college he didn't have anyone to show him how to properly cite. Although somehow he earned a BA in history without having to face a term paper...hmmm.