Biden did 20 years in the wilderness for stealing a speech; Obama gets a free pass?

[PurityOfEssence]

That seems a bit out of line, especially since Biden got a bit of a bum rap.

Far too many people--seemingly even Obama himself--don't think this is much of a deal. They should turn off their indignation for a minute and listen to what's going on around them. It's not just pissy partisans who are bent out of shape about this, and it's not some kind of bizarre conspiracy by a few hypocritical loudmouths distorting a minor misstep into a big stumble. It's broad-based. It's a big deal. It should be seen as such.

For someone who's made so much hay about inclusiveness, this really cuts to the bone of his public persona. Too much "politics" here and basically no "hope".

Joe Biden's a good guy; you young-uns might wonder what he's been doing all these years. Well, back when he was running for president in '88, he used a speech by UK politician Neal Kinnock. Even though he credited Kinnock when giving this stump speech, the one time he didn't got caught on tape and he was hounded out of the race as a plagiarist. He paid mightily for that, and I think he's paid his debt to society. That's an ethical lapse, but it's not a lapse of pluralism or empathy, two pillars of a decent democracy. That's what this is.

This is callous disregard for the feelings of a downtrodden group, done for political gain, offhandedly covered with the fig leaf of "inclusion" and minimized as inconsequential. The mind reels. The big question is this: if THIS doesn't matter, what does?

To not take Senator Obama to task for this in a big way is to endorse such convenience of conscience. Certain means are not justified by the ends because their very employment denies the ends by definition. Where should we draw the line? Well, I'd say way short of this kind of crap.

There's a reason why stuff like this gets so much airplay: character matters. Judgment matters. Inclusion matters.

What would be a fair course of action for him to take at this point?