On Again, Off Again Biden
WOODBRIDGE, VA - A day after criticizing his own campaign ad, Joe Biden carefully stuck to message today, knocking John McCain for playing "the same old Washington game" of double talk when it comes to tax loopholes. The 25-minute speech was one of his fastest to date and comes as Biden's off-message moments are attracting more attention.
In an interview with CBS News that aired Monday, the Delaware senator called a campaign ad that referred to McCain's computer illiteracy "terrible," adding that it wouldn't have seen the light of day if he had known about it. A YouTube video of Biden saying the Democratic ticket does not support "clean coal" is making the rounds. The comment found its way into McCain's morning speech.
Even simple misstatements, like Biden erroneously saying Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation on television after the 1929 stock market crash, are getting more attention in Republican press releases.
Barack Obama's campaign has attempted to clarify Biden's comments. They say he hadn't actually seen the McCain computer ad when he made his statement. And on clean coal, they counter by calling it a misinterpretation.
"Senator Biden's point is that China is building coal plants with outdated technology every day, and the United States needs to lead by developing clean coal technologies," Biden spokesman David Wade said in a statement.
The campaign hopes to shift the focus, and Biden's role, to comments hammering McCain. Here, he reinforced the message of a television ad hitting the Republican nominee for supporting a loophole he said allows insurance companies to avoid paying taxes by claiming to be based in Bermuda.
"On the floor of the United States Senate, John spoke out against these offshore tax breaks not long ago," Biden said. " Then, while he was in Bermuda ... he started singing a very, very different tune."
He claimed McCain raised $50,000 from insurance executives after promising them that he'd oppose efforts to close such a loophole.
"There's nothing illegal about any of that. This is the same old Washington game," he said. "Maybe he should be asking those companies to put America first."
The event attracted an invitation-only crowd of 250. Biden, on his second trip to Northern Virginia in a week, said the region is close enough to Washington to know it needs to change.
"Virginia is ready to do something it hasn't done since 1964, and that's vote to send a Democratic administration to the White House," he said.
(NBC/NJ's MIKE MEMOLI)