2008-08-25 The Write Stuff

2008-08-25 David Greenberg Slate \Joe Biden/plagiarism\1988 US presidential race http://www.slate.com/id/2198543/pagenum/all/ The Write Stuff? The Write Stuff  But Biden's exit from the 1988 race is worth recalling in detail, because his transgressions far exceeded Obama's own relatively innocent lifting of rhetorical set pieces from his friend Deval Patrick, which occasioned a brief flap last February. Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect. In some ways, the 1988 campaignâ€”in which scandal forced not just Biden but also Gary Hart from the raceâ€”marked a watershed in the absurd gotcha politics that have since marred our politics and punditry. But unlike Hart's plight, Biden's can't be blamed on an overly intrusive or hectoring press corps. The press was right to dig into this one.

&ldquo;Biden's exit from the 1988 race is worth recalling in detail, because his transgressions far exceeded Obama's own relatively innocent lifting of rhetorical set pieces from his friend Deval Patrick, which occasioned a brief flap last February.&rdquo;   