"Like A Chicken Voting For Colonel Sanders"

WARREN, OH - Joe Biden launched yet another bus tour of the battleground Buckeye State here this morning, paying homage to his labor supporters in a state he said will likely decide who wins the election.

"I'm not trying to make you more or less important than you are," he said. "But what you decide here in Ohio is likely to determine what the next decade in the United States of America is going to look like. Because Ohio's likely to determine who the next President of the United States of America is."

Biden spoke about middle-class struggles in the current economic crisis. He said that while Barack Obama is offering solution John McCain is just launching more attacks.

"One guy's fighting for you, and the other guy's fighting mad," he said.

A strong middle class requires a strong labor force in America, Biden told a union-heavy crowd. He promised to not only work to stem labor's decline but to see it grow stronger in a Democratic administration.

"I am labor from belt-buckle to shoe-sole," he said. "There's only one reason ... there's a middle class in America. It's because of the American labor movement."

Introducing Biden was AFL-CIO secretary treasurer Rich Trumpka, who said that for a middle class voter to vote for McCain "is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders, and if the Republicans get in, you're gonna get plucked!"

It was an electric line for the crowd, which responded in kind throughout today's speeches at the Warren Community Ampitheatre. As Biden began wrapping up his speech, he started saying that there was "a fundamental difference between Barack Obama and John McCain and Joe Biden and Sarah Palin." Before he could get much futher, someone in the audience shouted out, "Brains!"

"Maybe I should stop here," Biden said, chuckling.

(NBC/NJ's MIKE MEMOLI)