Palin in a Bathing Suit?! Biden Plagiarizing?!

Obama or McCain? Palin or Biden?

The presidential race increasingly shifts from Obama to McCain to Palin to Biden. I’ve never before seen a race like this where the vice-presidential nominees are such an integral part of our election. Although typically these two fade in the shadows of our presidential nominees, this year, both are vital to the election and interesting too.

The vital part is possibly because of our two presidential nominees, obviously, one is a minority whom the United States may not be exactly ready for, and the other is a bit on the older side, so there’s always the concern for his well-being. Thus, we hope to ensure that we can trust our Vice-President to assume office if need be.

If you’ve kept up with CNN and other popular news channels for the last two days, they have not stopped reporting on Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, during which she condoned spoofs of herself by Tina Fey. She has been widely criticized by the media for allowing this, and some are even worried that her disposition to such ridicule actually hurt the Republican ticket. A former beauty pageant contestant, I’m not sure that Palin has much more to offer than her looks. If you are not convinced and are interested, you may view a video of the potential female VP in a bathing suit here.

On the other hand, upon planning a lesson for a class on avoiding plagiarism, I accidentally stumbled upon a plethora of articles accusing our Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate Joseph Biden of once plagiarizing both in past campaign speeches and in school.

Plagiarism, in case you don’t know, is considered an exceedingly serious offense that scholars must work diligently to avoid because of the serious consequences that could arise from copying another’s written or spoken words or ideas. It is perfectly avoidable if one does not fail to cite the sources of their information.

Joseph Biden has a history of being amid important presidential elections. Little did I know that he was actually a front runner for the 1988 Democratic nomination which he lost to Michael Dukakis. Eventually, Dukakis lost the nomination to the first George Bush, then-V-P to Ronald Reagan.

Biden did not lose the 1988 Democratic nomination, however, without first winning the embarrassment of being accused of stealing words from a British Labor leader- a certain Kinnock. Dukakis’ campaign team at the time launched this video of Biden and eventually, he was forced to withdraw from the Democratic nominee race. The video exposes that not only did he plagiarize various campaign speeches, but also that Biden was accused of plagiarizing papers in law school.

 With so much to consider about our candidates, how will Laredo vote this November?