I just want to go on the record and say that I hereby cite this information from Wikipedia. I know Wikipedia isn't the news compass of the world, but I knew to look this up because this story is out of the Public Speaking Textbook from which I lecture four times a year! FOUR TIMES A YEAR, I beg students not to be this guy. And Obama picks him.
From Wikipedia:
"In September 1987, the campaign ran into serious trouble when he plagiarized a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party.
Kinnock's speech included the lines:
Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Then pointing to his wife in the audience, he continued: Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?
While Biden's speech included the lines:
I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Then, pointing to his wife, he continued: Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?
Within days, it was also discovered that, while a first year law student at Syracuse Law School, Biden had plagiarized a law review article in a class paper he wrote. Though the then-dean of the law school, as well as Biden's former professor, played down the incident of plagiarism, they did find that Biden drew "chunks of heavy legal prose directly from" the article in question. Biden said the act was inadvertent due to his not knowing the proper rules of citation, and Biden was permitted to retake the course after receiving a grade of F, which was subsequently dropped from his record. Biden also released his undergraduate grades, which started off poorly and remained unexceptional. Further, when questioned by a New Hampshire resident about his grades in law school, Biden had inaccurately recollected graduating in the "top half" of his class (when he actually graduated 76th in a class of 85), that he had attended on a full scholarship, and had received three degrees. In fact, he had received two majors, History and Political Science, and a single B.A., as well as a half scholarship based on financial need.
Faced with these revelations, Biden withdrew from the nomination race on September 23, 1987, saying his candidacy had been overrun by "the exaggerated shadow" of his mistakes."
And end quote from Wikipedia, officially cited correctly in blogger format by Mom On The Rocks herself.
If that's not enough, he looks like a dirtbag who used too much sunless tanner. He's ORANGY and his hair is slicked back. What happened to change? We already have an old dirtbag for vp. Obama, why you gotta do this to me? To win Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan? But what good is winning those three if you lose all the rest?
I hate to get all political, but as a mom, for the potential future of my kids, I am so dissapointed.
Disappointed. That's how I roll.
Spoken... I mean written like a true journalist, MOTR. I am not a journalist. I am stickin by Obama. :) But don't you worry, MOTR, we can still sip martinis and vodka together after we drop the kids off at school.
Way to get political, Hot Mama. You and my hubby are both disgusted. Not sure what to think...but I do know that I miss you and all the other Big O Cool Moms.