The Veeps

I hate to admit this, but I like Joe Biden. He has a compelling story. He seems like a nice guy.

But how soon we forget. He is to me, everything that is wrong with America these days.

In 1988 Joe Biden ran for President.

He gave an impassioned speech one day on the stump, and people noticed something funny.

Now, this was long before the internet was a font of instant information.

Woops, Biden had plagiarized the speech from a well known British politician.

OK, I thought, no problem. It is certainly understandable that someone would hear a speech, be so taken by it that they would copy it subconsciously.

Look, everyone has imitated the "no new taxes", the "it's the economy stupid" and other well known phrases. Hell, if I hear one more scandal called "...gate" I think I'll scream.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the honesty school with plagiarist Joe.

People started checking the old fashioned way. With hard copies.

And woops again, what happened? Well, it wasn't only his stump speech that was plagiarized, it was the supposedly off the cuff stories he told, and comments he made!!!

Now, it was getting sticky. So Joe, humiliated, dropped out.

What was the worst part about it? Biden is bright. And a good speaker. So why do it? Because it was just easier.

But that wasn't enough. Soon after, in a shocking development that got no press because he had already dropped out of the Presidential race, it was discovered that his instinct for stealing others' work extended all the way back to law school. He had plagiarized law school exams!!!

Worse, to me, was the fact that this was all barely mentioned when he ran again this year, and not at all when he was chosen by Obama.

I'm sure many of you will respond "so what". And that is JUST my point.

As Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of my liberal heroes once said, it is the creeping destruction of lowered expectations.


Now, as to McCain's pick. My first reaction is simply this. I don't get it.

Not for the reason you all might think. I don't know enough about Governor Palin to make an adequate judge of her yet. What I mean is this.

The idea of "energizing your base" is another hackneyed phrase that I am fed up with.

How about energizing the other guys base? How about really reaching across the aisle?

You know, like Bill did?
And incredibly enough (I still can't figure out how this moron did it) but like Reagan did (easily the stupidest President of my life).

But worse, as I have often said to my female friends, and one of the truism's of politics, is that women don't vote for women.

Now, I don't want you all telling me that YOU will vote for a woman.

That is not the point. Every poll ever taken reflects the fact that women do not vote for women. Certainly not in outsized proportions.

So, the idea that McCain will pick off Hillary supporters is wrong at it's base. And wrong in fact.

More on this when I "vet" Governor Palin.


Update: Upon initial review, Palin seems to me a nightmare, at best.

The term "abuse of power" may well have been invented to describe her.