Biden’s way with words now seems to be a liability
JOHN HARWOOD
Sep 20, 1987
… But it was just last month that Biden appropriated an inspirational speech by British Labor leader Neil Kinnock. Kinnock told of ancestors who played football after long days underground in the mines, who recited poetry poetry and paved the way for him to become the first in his family to attend college.
When he saw a tape of Kinnock in action, Biden said Thursday, “it was a connect. I mean, I could tell how that man felt. That’s how I feel.”
So he used it - changing the names but little else - at a debate last month in Iowa. But instead of crediting Kinnock, he told the audience he thought of it on the way to the debate…
Biden acknowledged Kinnock’s language didn’t fit his family perfectly. His father was in used car sales, his grandfather was a mining engineer. But he had been told and “assumed” that other relatives had worked in the mines. And, “to make it clear,” members of his mother’s family had, indeed, been to college…
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