Biden praises unions, attacks GOP policies in Las Vegas speech

In a fiery, partisan speech Friday in Las Vegas, Vice President Joe Biden hailed labor unions as guardians of the shrinking middle class and assailed Republicans for fighting for tax breaks for big companies and the wealthy at the expense of regular Americans.

Biden's speech was the closing act for a national convention of thousands of members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union at Paris Las Vegas.

In addition to attacking Republican policies, Biden defended the administration of President Barack Obama, who is gearing up for his 2012 re-election campaign.

"We have done everything we could to make labor as strong as possible," Biden said. "We can't have a strong middle class with a declining labor movement."

Biden spoke for 33 minutes to an audience of more than 1,500 raucous Teamsters who interrupted his speech several times with applause.

"I just liked what he was saying about how the rich are trying to kill the rest of the world," said Rudy Gardner, 55, a Teamster from Washington, D.C., of the speech. "People are tired of what is going on."

Biden accused Republicans of using the recession as an excuse to erode worker rights.

"They're blaming you," Biden said. "Not Wall Street's unregulated subprime mortgages, not multitrillion-dollar deficits run up by the last administration."

The speech comes as Obama and his surrogates are traveling the country to shore up support for re-election, no small task given the state of the economy nationally and in Nevada, which Obama won by 12 points in 2010.

Several times Biden sought to contrast the wages and lifestyles of middle class Teamsters with wealthy Americans he said would benefit from tax breaks if Republicans got their way.

"(Republicans) really believe that a strong U.S. economy rests upon an ever increasing accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few enlightened guys they think are smarter than you are," Biden said. "You are the only thing that stands between the barbarians at the gate and them taking it all over."

Ryan Erwin, a Republican consultant working for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said Nevada voters won't buy the working-class hero message Obama and Biden are selling with their campaign.

Erwin said Obama and Biden will pay an electoral price for not delivering on campaign promises to revive the economy, especially in states like Nevada, which is suffering from the highest unemployment in the nation.

"This is nothing more than a distraction from reality," Erwin said of Biden's harsh rhetoric. "When you have nothing to run on that is positive, all you can do is pick apart things your opposition does."

Although Obama won Nevada handily in 2008, his support has weakened along with the economy.

A Magellan Research poll in June showed Obama's approval rating was 41 percent, compared with a disapproval rate of 53 percent.

The poll also showed 45 percent of voters age 18 to 34, key voters for Obama, approve of his job as president.

Even some at the speech Friday acknowledged re-election could be difficult for Obama and Biden.

"I want them to win, but the mood in this country is so far right wing, I am afraid they might not," said Mike McGaha, 57, a Teamster from Greensboro, N.C.

In addition to the Biden speech, Teamsters nominated three candidates to the ballot for international general president.

Incumbent James Hoffa won most votes.

Also nominated was Sandy Pope, who would be the first woman to hold the job, and Fred Gegare, who accused Hoffa of being out of touch with workers on front-line jobs and for making too many concessions to big Teamster employers such as UPS.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.