Compare and contrast
Here’s a clip from the 1988 campaign of Senator Biden . He says in part:
I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do…I went to law school on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship. In the first year in law school I decided I didn’t want to be in law school and ended up in the bottom two thirds of my class, and then decided I wanted to stay, went back to law school, and in fact ended up in the top half of my class…I graduated with three degrees from undergraduate school.
Senator Biden’s claims of achievement above are all apparently false. The clip, which “misstated several facts,” was comprehensively reported on at the time by E.J. Dionne in the NYT, just as Senator Biden was to exit the presidential race because of several scandals. Here are a few of the real facts:
Mr. Biden, who attended the Syracuse College of Law and graduated 76th in a class of 85, acknowledged: ”I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school and my recollection of this was inacurate.”
As for receiving three degrees, Mr. Biden said: ”I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science. My reference to degrees at the Claremont event was intended to refer to these majors – I said ‘three’ and should have said ‘two.’ ” Mr. Biden received a single B.A. in history and political science…
Mr. Biden said of his claim that he went to school on full academic scholarship: ”My recollection is — and I’d have to confirm this — but I don’t recall paying any money to go to law school.” Newsweek said Mr. Biden had gone to Syracuse ”on half scholarship based on financial need.”
Questions: (a) Does anyone care about such things anymore, as they apparently did in 1988, or can a politician today make such hamfisted distortions without consequence? (b) Can you actually imagine this “windy old gasbag”, so widely ridiculed and parodied in the media until the day before yesterday, as a potential President? We’ll see.
We tend to agree with the observation that in choosing Biden for VP, “Obama has made the first real blunder in his general election campaign.” Biden went nowhere in 1988, and in 2008, he dropped out after finishing fifth in Iowa. It’s hard to see what he adds to the ticket. In our opinion Senator Clinton would have been a much stronger choice, based on her performance in areas where Obama is weak.