He showed himself to be a warm, empathetic person who tried to explain complex issues to your average Iowans, never talking down to them.

Oh please! Even Hitler had charisma. Joe Biden’s support for expanding the War on Some Drugs, which has wrecked freedom, killed tens of thousands, and sent over a million people to jail needlessly places him firmly in the ranks of the vilest politicians to plague us.

I had the opportunity to be around Joe Biden when he was is Iowa, and to observe him. I never heard a “gaffe,” though I did hear him speak a number of times. He showed himself to be a warm, empathetic person who tried to explain complex issues to your average Iowans, never talking down to them. He was always gracious under conditions that were sometimes difficult.

I do know about the “plagiarism”, which was a media feeding frenzy at the time, and it is nearly always misrepresented, because people use it for ammunition instead of telling the whole story.

At the end of the article, the author made the following statement:

Note: In an article about plagiarism, crediting sources seems especially wise. I relied on three books about the 1988 campaign: Jack Germond and Jules Witcover’s Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars?: The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988; Sidney Blumenthal’s Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War; and Peter Goldman and Tom Mathews’ The Quest for the Presidency 1988, along with articles from the New York Times and Washington Post.

As to the plagiarism story: I haven’t really looked into it. I’m sure I can find conservative sources which will claim it’s true and left leaning sources that would say otherwise. Both sides probably have some sort of “proof” to support their claim (the truth is probably somewhere in the middle). So fine, I’m uninformed on this particular issue. I bet there are quite a few issues where I am more informed than you.

And cheap shots? It’s an attempt at humor and I found it to be funny. I bet you laughed your ass off every time David Letterman or Jon Stewart poked fun at President Bush, Sen. McCain, and Gov. Palin. Were these cheap shots? Some were and some were not.

But you know what? It all comes with the territory of being a public figure (this is especially true for elected officials).

With that being said, this was not one of Reason TV’s finest moments.

Of course, Biden is one of the major reasons why the war on Some Drugs, that loveable relic of Jim Crow is still wrecking lives today.

I’ve long suspected that Biden was brought in as Obama’s insurance against assassination. As bad as Obama is, he doesn’t hold a candle to the policy disasters Biden has supported.

That sort of insurance does not necessarily work; After all having the psycho Teddy Roosevelt as his VP did not save McKinley.