Words are hard; particularly for former vice president Joe Biden, who currently wants to become President. If only we were allowed to ask, or even question, if he has taken a cognitive test proving he is functionally capable of running the free world. However, Biden’s age may just be a symptom and not the disease for his memory mishaps.
Critics have called Joe “sloppy” for using words awfully close to a deceased Canadian left-wing New Democratic Party leader’s words at his DNC speech last week. Though we’d be quick to cite his age, apparently, the 77-year-old Democratic presidential nominee has a history of forgetfulness and plagiarism going back to when he was a young, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed political newbie.
Biden said in his Thursday night speech concluding the Democratic National Convention, “For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark.” Reportedly our neighbors up north’s ears perked up. Jack Layton, the leader of Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party wrote as he lay dying in 2011, “my friends, Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.”
Albeit awfully similar, phrases of opposing words seem to be a popular cliché amongst political speeches. Although the reportedly $4,200 anti-plagiarism software program that the Democratic nominee’s campaign installed last year thought the difference in speeches was kosher, Biden’s track record speaks for itself.
The New York Post reported, “as a law school student in 1965, Biden flunked a class for repeatedly citing published works without attribution.” In 1987, “he withdrew from the Democratic Party’s presidential race in shame after he reportedly ripped off lines from UK Labor party leader Neil Kinnock in a debate – and even went so far as to claim elements of Kinnock’s family history as his own.” Now that sounds more like the Biden gaffe machine we know and love.
Just last year, Trump publicly called out Biden’s plagiarism habits on Twitter: “Plagiarism charge against Sleepy Joe Biden on his ridiculous Climate Change Plan is a big problem, but the Corrupt Media will save him” wrote Trump. Biden was caught for “stealing lines from climate activist groups and using them, word for word, in his own climate change plan” reported the New York Post.
