Biden tells valley crowd tactics wrong

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden told a crowd in Henderson on Friday that Republican attacks in the final days of the campaign aren't what the middle class needs in tough times.

"They don't hurt Barack Obama, they don't hurt me, but they hurt the American people because they attempt to distract you from the serious issues in our daily lives," the Delaware senator told a crowd of about 3,800 people that overflowed a public park on a balmy night.

Biden pointed to automated phone calls, going out in Nevada and other states, that "question Barack Obama's character and by implication question his patriotism." And he decried a recent remark by his counterpart on the GOP ticket, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is reported to have told a fundraiser in North Carolina that she was glad to be in a "pro-America" part of the country.

"Ladies and gentlemen, every state I've been in has sent sons and daughters to serve and die" in the war, he said. "It doesn't matter where you live, we all love our country, Governor Palin."

Speaking Friday evening in Henderson's Morrell Park, near the intersection of Boulder Highway and Basic Road, Biden frequently looked beyond the election, emphasizing the tough situation the next president will face and the sense of national resolve it will take to pull through.

He praised Obama's "steady hands," saying his performance in the recent debates with Republican John McCain showed "he has the temperament for the moment."

And of course, he invoked Joe the Plumber, the newly minted star of the campaign -- the Ohio man who had a conversation about taxes with Obama, concluded from it that Obama's agenda was quasi-socialist, and became McCain's case in point in Wednesday's final debate.

Biden noted that independent analysts have since concluded that under Obama's tax plan, Joe the Plumber, aka S. Joseph Wurzelbacher, would get a tax cut. (He didn't mention that the experts have said McCain's plan probably would give Joe a bigger cut.)

"There is no fundamental difference between what John McCain would do on the economy and what's been happening for the last eight years, and that's a natural fact," Biden said.

In a prepared response to Biden's remarks, McCain campaign spokesman Rick Gorka said, "Tonight Joe Biden brought his bombastic and spiteful campaign of distortions, lies and poor judgment to Southern Nevada, where he continued Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on Joe the Plumber, small businesses and individuals making as little as $42,000 a year."

Obama's tax proposals would not increase taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 per year, but he once voted for a budget resolution in the Senate that would have raised the taxes of single taxpayers by $15.

"It's unfortunate that Biden used this unique opportunity to champion the protectionist, higher tax policies of Herbert Hoover instead of offering constructive solutions to help hurting Nevadans," Gorka added.

Biden said Obama would let President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy expire, which some call a tax hike but Biden said was understood when the cuts were enacted: "The deal was you get this tax cut temporarily. It's due to expire, we want to let it expire." McCain, he said, "wants to double down -- an expression I know no one in Nevada has ever heard -- he wants to double down on the tax cuts that put us in this hole by calling for an additional $300 billion per year for the largest corporations and the wealthiest individuals in America."

With early voting beginning today in Nevada, voter registration tallies show Democrats with an unprecedented 100,000-plus voter edge over Republicans statewide. "We're going to win this state, and we're going to win this election, because of y'all," Biden said. "Start voting tomorrow. Vote early. Get some momentum going here, for real."

While the signs look good now, he said, "we cannot be complacent about this, man. You know what they're going to do. They already threw the kitchen sink; I think other parts of the bathroom are coming. There's a lot of reasons to be encouraged, but it is far, far from over, ladies and gentlemen."

Henderson resident Larry Johnson, a 47-year-old mechanic, said he appreciated Biden's talk of uniting the country, "instead of the divisive tactics of the other side."

The ugliness of the campaign, he said, "it's really bad for our nation. You shouldn't be tearing citizens apart. People have a right to believe what they want to believe. It really is a bad thing that they're doing."

John Darcy, 61, said he identified with Biden as a working-class Irish Catholic from a union background.

"I've been working since I was 14 to help my mother pay the rent," said Darcy, a New York transplant who now is retired from banking and lives with his wife, Ellen, in Anthem.

An independent, Darcy said he supports Obama because "he reminds me of John Kennedy. Things haven't been exactly right since Smiling Jack."

Winfred Alexander, 54, said he's a Republican, but he's voting for Democrats this year because Republicans have had their chance and failed.

"I don't see any change coming out of the Republican Party," said Alexander, a cook. "Things are just going downhill, especially the economy. We've got to get some change in government."

Friday's speech was Biden's first visit to Nevada since being named to the Democratic ticket. During his own presidential run, which ended before the Nevada caucuses, Biden came to the state five times.

Palin is scheduled to pay Nevada her second visit next week, making stops in Reno and Henderson on Tuesday.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.

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