On Saturday, to counter the near-total media blackout of Joe Biden's presence on the campaign trail, I decided to write a diary about what he's been up to. As many of you commented then, he's been actively campaigning, firing up local audiences, and freeing Obama up to keep at the forefront of the national stage.
Today, he took it up a notch, with a scathing attack on Bush/McCain. Here's Part I of the speech.
The speech was pointed and hard-hitting; see below for excerpts.
Here's Part II of the video--great stuff here!
Today in St. Claire Shores, Michigan, Sen. Joe Biden slammed the Bush administration for the economic tailspin we're seeing today:
Eight years ago, a man ran for President who claimed he was different, not a typical Republican. He called himself a reformer. He admitted that his Party, the Republican Party, had been wrong about things from time to time. He promised to work with Democrats and said he'd been doing that for a long time.
That candidate was George W. Bush. Remember that? Remember the promise to reach across the aisle? To change the tone? To restore honor and dignity to the White House?
We saw how that story ends. A record number of home foreclosures. Home values, tumbling. And the disturbing news that the crisis you've been facing on Main Street is now hitting Wall Street, taking down Lehman Brothers and threatening other financial institutions.
He likewise sharply questioned McCain's grasp on the economic crisis, and also expressed grave doubts about the destructive political tactics of the McCain camp this past week.
Biden: McCain is now simply a Rove puppet. McCain: Obama is too partisan
ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. | Joe Biden has told Michigan backers the once independent-minded John McCain has adopted the serve-the-rich policies of President Bush.
Biden told hundreds of people in a high school gym in St. Clair Shores Monday McCain has copied the divisive tactics of ex-Bush strategist Karl Rove.
He says McCain "is now launching a low blow a day."
Biden took McCain to task for his recent lies in advertising and in defense of the indefensible choice of Sarah Palin as running mate.
When Senator McCain was subjected to unconscionable, scurrilous attacks in his 2000 primary campaign, I called him on the phone to ask what I could do. And now, some of the very same people and the tactics he once deplored his campaign now employs. The same campaign that once called for a town hall a week is now launching a low blow a day.
...It bothers me that -- as one media watchdog put it -- John’s recent commercial is the, "latest in a number that resort to a dubious disregard for the facts." As another news organization put it: "The wheels have come off the straight talk express."
But what really bothers me, is that every punch thrown at us --- is an attempt to distract you. And they can be plenty distracting.
Like the McCain advertisements that misrepresent a vote by Barack Obama to protect young children from sexual predators. Like Senator McCain’s effort to obscure the fact that Barack Obama’s tax cuts will benefit 95 percent of all working people. Like John McCain’s attempt to cloak himself in reform by misrepresenting his running mate’s record.
It’s disappointing to me to think that John McCain really does approve this message.
The speech is getting wide coverage, for a change. Here's what Reuters reports today:
"We’ve seen this movie before, folks. But as everyone knows, the sequel is always worse than the original," Biden will say in the speech he will give in St. Clair Shores, Mich.
"If you’re ready for four more years of George Bush, John McCain is your man. Just as George Herbert Walker Bush was nicknamed ‘Bush 41′ and his son is known as ‘Bush 43,’ John McCain could easily become known as ‘Bush 44,’"
OK, that's all for today; more later in the week.