GOP attacks Biden as a 'governing liability'

Another favorite topic of Biden's has been the administration's rescue of General Motors and Chrysler. Turning to Lordstown's sprawling GM plant, which has rebounded with the production of the compact Chevy Cruze, Biden took Ryan to task for blaming Obama for the closing of his hometown Janesville, Wis., GM plant, and he highlighted Romney's opposition to a taxpayer rescue of the U.S. car companies. The Janesville plant closed in 2008, before Obama's election.

"What they didn't acknowledge is Gov. Romney's position was 'Let Detroit go bankrupt,'" Biden said, referring to the headline on a Romney opinion piece in The New York Times in November 2008.

Democrats say the extra attention serves notice of Biden's abilities as a campaigner, along with his penchant for forming bonds with blue-collar workers through stories about growing up in hardscrabble Scranton, Pa.

He can move an audience with stories about watching his proud yet unemployed father forced to move to Delaware to find work or the death of his first wife and daughter in a car accident shortly after he was elected to the Senate in 1972. Such personal stories make a direct connection with union workers in Ohio or grandmothers in Florida.

"It's an attempt to undermine what they believe is a potent political weapon in the Obama campaign's arsenal," said Democratic strategist Mike Feldman, a former aide to Vice President Al Gore. "If they were ignoring him, that would tell you that they're not that concerned."

Of course, Biden can be prone to commit an unforced error from the podium, handing Republicans an opening.

Most recently, Biden told a Virginia crowd that included hundreds of African-Americans that Romney's plans for Wall Street would put them "back in chains."

In May, Biden said on a Sunday talk show that he was "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex married couples having the same rights as heterosexual married couples. That essentially forced Obama to move forward with his support of same-sex marriage. Biden later apologized to the president for going off-script.

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who managed GOP nominee John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, said Biden was a "formidable politician" and an "effective campaigner" who could garner support among voters prized by both campaigns, including blue-collar workers and Catholics in states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Schmidt warned that the hits on Biden actually could have an unintended consequence heading into to the vice presidential debate set for Oct. 11 in Danville, Ky.

"When you ridicule someone, you're lowering expectations to a point that makes it a lot harder for Paul Ryan to score points," Schmidt said. "There's a downside in that."

Associated Press writer Brian Bakst in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.

Follow Ken Thomas at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

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