The Democrat National Convention is already fading in the rear-view mirror of history, and the country is preparing for the Republican National Convention (which sounds as if it will be a more cheerful, optimistic affair). The passage of time, however, has allowed people to compare Biden’s acceptance speech to other speeches and, lo and behold, Biden is back to plagiarizing, whether it’s stealing ideas from Trump, words from other politicians, or whole passages from himself.

Once upon a time, the American media was not in love with Joe Biden. That’s why, in 1987, when it emerged that Biden had copied a Welsh Labour politician almost word for word (albeit without the Welshman’s elegance and passion), the media ran with the story:

What political watchers have discovered is that, thirty-three years later, Biden is back up to his old tricks. As we’ve already pointed out, Biden’s grand plan for dealing with the Wuhan virus is simply a rehash of what Trump has been doing since the end of January. That counts as plagiarizing ideas. It’s also pathetic that, despite criticizing Trump non-stop, Biden’s best idea is to repeat Trump’s playbook.

On Saturday, Canadians noticed that Biden’s speech echoed a public letter that Jack Layton, a Canadian politician wrote in 2011:

Layton served as the leader of the left-wing New Democratic Party from 2003 until his death in 2011. Prior to his passing, at the age of 61, Layton penned a letter, which read in part: ‘Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.’

During Biden’s speech on Thursday night, he stated: ‘Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark.’ 

While the words are not identical, a number of Canadians took to Twitter claiming that Biden may have mimicked Layton. 

One stated: ‘With respect, Joe, if you’re going to quote the late Canadian NDP leader Jack Layton, at least give him credit.’

Admittedly, the words are not identical, but the rhythm, the sentence structure, and the ideas are still remarkably close.

One doesn’t have to go all the way to Canada, though, to find more examples of Biden copying things. It turns out that Biden was also copying himself for what should have been the crowning speech of his career:

This is unbelievable. Same exact speech. pic.twitter.com/doY5R6QqKA

— Power Tie (@realPowerTie) August 22, 2020

One would think that, due to his experience in 1987, Biden would have been so scarred by the harm his plagiarism did to his presidential run that he would, in future, go out of his way to avoid even the appearance of plagiarism. And maybe if Biden were still in his right mind, he would have. Since he is mentally fading, however, it’s easy to believe that Biden’s handlers decided that it would be easier for him to read the teleprompter and give the speech if the ideas were familiar.

All of us know that, as we age, we develop certain narratives that we can easily summon. And those of us who have watched a loved one fall victim to dementia know that it’s these well-traveled narratives that are among the last things they lose.

The Democrat party faithful may be relieved that Biden, with or without technological cheating, was able to give what sounded like a reasonably long, coherent speech. However, as it becomes increasingly apparent that Joe is repeating himself, normal Americans are going to be unimpressed.

What we see here is the equivalent of applauding a trained monkey pounding away at a typewriter. We may be charmed by the fact that the monkey can mimic typing, but we’re not going to expect him to produce a book. And while Biden can still read a simple and familiar speech, that doesn’t prove he’s fit to be president.

Image: Monkey typing, 1907; New York Zoological Society, Public Domain