For Biden, Copying Charge May Be Deja Vu

Right now, Joe Biden must be having flashbacks to the days before he dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1988.

Back then, Biden was a young fresh face, battling Rep. Dick Gephardt and Massachussetts Gov. Mike Dukakis along with Tennessee Sen. Al Gore and Illinois Sen. Paul Simon. Biden had a reputation as a powerful speaker.

Then one day a tape of a speech given by British politician Neil Kinnock showed up in the mail of a Des Moines political reporter. The tape showed that Biden was "borrowing" heavily from Kinnock's speeches.

It was embarrassing, and set Biden's campaign in Iowa reeling. He withdrew shortly afterward when more plagiarism charges surfaced.

I remembered the incident, which I covered as a reporter in Iowa, as soon as I heard the suggestions that Barack Obama has borrowed words from Massachussetts Gov. Deval Patrick without attributing them.

Biden may be wondering why the criticisms are rolling off Obama instead of sticking as they did to him 20 years ago. Part of the reason may be media amnesia -- its failure to point out how similar charges affected other candidates. Another reason may be that the allegations arose at different points in the candidates' campaign trajectories -- Biden's was just getting off the ground, but Obama is on a roll. He simply has too much steam for anything to stop him. Or maybe plagiarism no longer matters in the Internet age, when people cut and paste at will. (Obviously, as an instructor at the University of Michigan who has to be on guard for student plagiarism, I hope that last part isn't true.)

While supporters of Hillary Clinton are writing about the matter, Obama has treated the matter lightly, saying, "I really don't think this is too big of a deal."

But I'll bet right now Republicans are combing through both the books that Obama has written, looking for anything else that he may have borrowed. I doubt they'll find anything because Obama is an excellent writer and has no need to plagiarize.

As I tell my students at the University of Michigan, borrowing is fine -- just attribute it.