Thursday Biden Bash - plagarism

The Washington Post has a buried section of what it terms the Clinton frenzy, on the 1988 presidential election Democratic primaries on Biden's exploded nomination run:

Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr., a U.S. senator from Delaware, was driven from the nomination battle after delivering, without attribution, passages from a speech by British Labor party leader Neil Kinnock. A barrage of subsidiary revelations by the press also contributed to Biden's withdrawal: a serious plagiarism incident involving Biden during his law school years; the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record at a New Hampshire campaign event; and the discovery of other quotations in Biden's speeches pilfered from past Democratic politicians.

The controversy became two frenzies in one when it was disclosed that the campaign of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis had earlier secretly distributed to several news media outlets an "attack video" juxtaposing the Biden and Kinnock speeches and revealing Biden's word theft. The Dukakis campaign at first stonewalled and denied any part in the tape's distribution, but when the truth emerged Dukakis was forced to fire his campaign manager, John Sasso, and political director, Paul Tully – the two who had orchestrated the maneuver. Dukakis himself insisted he had no prior knowledge of their actions, and though wounded, his candidacy survived the incident.

Two plagiarism incidents in one scandal.  It didn't hurt Obama during his run for the presidency but Biden isn't exactly Obama in terms of political cache. 

Obama's shameless jobs pitch at Arlington Cemetery

On Veteran's Day, a most solemn occasion, the president visited Arlington National Cemetery and spoke about the service of veterans.  But he could not put politics aside and took the opportunity to shamelessly pitch his jobs focus.  It was pure politics and it was in poor taste.

The transition begins at 30:00 and runs through 32:10, and picks up again a bit later.

There's nothing wrong with exhorting America to hire veterans. In fact it's a good thing. But a jobs pitch at Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran's Day is odd and inappropriate at a minimum. It was as if he took the occasion to remind people that he is the jobs president. It is not the time nor place for such a speech.  

It is a time to thank Veterans and remember their service. Simply. Claiming honoring them means finding them jobs when they return is to disregard the efforts of those who have jobs,  and those who have retired because their service was long ago.  It is also to overlook the importance of their efforts in service of country because it diverts the true focus of the occasion.

Honoring veterans is supposed to go something like this; [President Ronald Reagan's Veteran's Day Speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Delivered 11 November 1988.]

Solemn, somber, reflective, yet still hopeful and inspiring.