Biden: GOP 'strong enough to beat us'
(CNN) – As President Barack Obama prepares to take his re-election campaign into high gear, his running mate is acknowledging the formidable contest ahead.
Speaking at the Atlantic Ideas Forum Thursday in Washington, Vice Pres. Joe Biden said Republicans posed a real threat to Obama's reelection prospects.
When asked about the Republican Party's strength, Biden said, "It's strong enough to beat both of us."
"Look, no matter what the circumstance, at the end of the day, the American people right now are in real trouble," Biden continued. "An even larger percentage have stagnant wages. And a significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction. That is never a good place to be going into re-election, whether it's your fault or not your fault. It's almost sometimes irrelevant."
Biden's remarks came the day before new jobs data showed the unemployment rate remaining at 9.1%.
Biden said ultimately voters will look to the Obama administration's record on the economy as they cast votes.
"What I'm counting on - I'm counting on what I read out there, the judgment of the American people to decide - they know the hole we're in; they know how far we've come out; they're dissatisfied how fast we're going; and they're going to have to choose whether or not the path we have set the country on is the path that we should continue to go or we should go back to 'liberating' the economy," Biden said.
As Obama and Biden continue to push Congress to vote on the president's American Jobs Act, the vice president said a fractured GOP was leading to legislative gridlock.
"This is just Joe Biden's impression, but I truly believe if just Eric Cantor, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and John Boehner were allowed to settle the deal in the room we would have had a deal," Biden said.
He said if the GOP were able to unify, a deal could get hammered out.
"We need a Republican Party that's united," Biden said. "We need a Republican Party you can sit down with and say, 'OK, this is a deal. Can you deliver? Can you deliver on the deal?'"
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Republicans have zero interest in helping the middle class. That there are fools out there who still believe this amazes me.
@Paul – Notice how you said "people" and not citizens, when you claimed the GOP is preventing millions of people from voting. That's how it should be, only citizens of the country should be voting. It's rather obvious why Obama hasn't tackled Immigration reform...
Our beloved President Obama is the best thing that ever happened to this country! Could you imagine if a Republican was in office again, you saw the economy going way downhill during the bush administration, the rich getting a whole lot richer, while the middle class just kept getting poorer, enough of the Republicans, if they want a conservative government, go buy an island somewhere and have it, but here in the United States, the people is who elects how this country will be, and we vote for democracy, we vote for the democrats!
Spending a billion to reform health care is better than spending a billion in Iraq. But we have done both and will take years to recover--but it will all work out if we have faith---fortunately-Messrs Obama and Biden are men of faith-come to think of it-so is Romney and Reid--we will be okay-regardless.
Dems might have a presidential race if they nominate Clinton/Clinton.
politicalChick said the following:
Our beloved President Obama is the best thing that ever happened to this country!
What rock have you been under to think this man has done anything except put our country on a path to total ruination?
The Republicans have ruined this country. They want to see the rich get richer at the expense of the Middle Class. There is a class war going on, and it is the Middle Class, we want that top 1 percent to be taxed more, those corporate loopholes needs to be shut, minimum wage needs to go up, every corporation needs to be unionized. As for healthcare, it should be free, healthcare does not work when corporations are trying to make a profit off sick people. The Democrats are not the problem, the Republicans have became slaves from the money gave to them by huge corporations, the Republicans are this nations enemy.
If you have had your head in the sand fort he last year or so you might wonder why Joe Biden made these remarks. He has a good reading on the mood of Americans and he knows how hard he and the President must work to get re-elected.
Mr. Boehner and Mr. Cantor will not try to get a deal. They and the rest of the Republicans are sitting on their hands while American citizens are grappling with the problems they face financially. Whether you support the President or not you must be willing to push these people to sit down and talk. Work out a deal so that you fellow Americans will have a chance to get jobs, earn decent wages, feed and clothe their families and find adequate housing. The American people should be the number one priority.
The most politically astute readers of this article know that Biden's comments are strategic.
Let the party begin.
Obama/Biden 2012
I think it is maybe more important what happens to the House and Senate than who is elected President.
Obama and Republican majority in both houses: Won't work
Obama and Democratic majority in both houses: Will work
Romney and Democratic majority in both houses: Might actually work
Romney and Republican majority in both houses: God help us
Conclusion: Do not let either house have a Republican majority.
Wade – "You want republicans to help the middle class"
You truly are a fool if you think the repukes give a tinkers damn about the middle class. They are trying with all their might to desotry it.
Oh, great. Obama is solidifying his inspirational campaign message...Republicans are bad and scary. Won't you help us defeat them?
Uh, what happened to the soaring rhetoric of three years ago when a lot of us kept saying, "Uh, please don't get swept up in this. If you listen, you can hear he's not saying anything. It's just loud and sounds good, oh, and the Greek columns to imply he's a mythical figure are a nice touch, too."
Wade wrote:
What rock have you been under to think this man has done anything except put our country on a path to total ruination?
--------------------
Uh, the country was already on the path to total ruination months before he even won the nomination. The economy crashed into a ditch several weeks before the election. The entire economy was in free fall the day Obama was sworn in.
What did the Republicans do while all of this was occurring? They gave away $700B in untraceable money to Wall Street, and stood on the sidelines snickering while Rome burned.
His message is clear. Get out and vote! Vote in EVERY election. Things are not progressing b/c there are people in office that are too comfortable with their ideology rather than listening to the people. If we ask them to tax the wealth there is some plege they signed that will trump the will of the people. Time to end the madness. Tell your representative you are not going to vote for them if they are not willing to represent you.
Don't sit in the office or your house on election day. Get out and vote.
If the GOP does win the 2012 election, here's my proposal: The poor, the disabled, the low income and middle class people in this Country might as well seceed from the Union, and form our own "Country"!! Because, by the time the Tea Party and GOP) get finished with cutting the budget, and most likely raising OUR taxes so they can continue to keep taxes LOW from millionaires, ALL of us will be living in that BIG home in the sky!!
of course they can. You guys are so weak a frogs fart could blow you down the road. Take a stand for crying out loud.
Too many people in this country do not have a clue that the Democrat Party and Obama are not the Democrats of old. These people are socialists and some are nearly communist in their leanings. They love to deceive people with the "progressive" label in order to mask their leftist ideology.
I laugh when the Democrats say the Republican Party has been "taken over" by the Tea Party, people that want stop the oncoming bankruptcy of this country. Yes, that is quite a dangerous group! But the press has totally ignored how the Democrat Party has been taken over by the far left and their spread the wealth around BS.
"Vice Pres. Joe Biden said Republicans posed a real threat to Obama's reelection prospects."
The reality is that Obama is the greatest threat to Obama's reelection prospects.
Republicans get their strength from high-dollar lobbyists like the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch. Those dollars are used to energize the Fox News crowd – fearful, angry, under-educated, white bigots. Make no mistake – this tactic works because these folks create their own reality. They are ready to vote back in the same people who wrecked our economy. They are ready to remove regulations on the same banking industry that screwed the consumers then took the bailout money. They are ready to trash Social Security and Medicare and do away with all environmental protections. This is the time for thinking people to support the President and work hard to defeat what has become a heteful movement against anybody but the right-wing.
The Republicans have yet to learn that if you take the bottom and the middle away from anything......the top will collapse...... this can even apply to society as well as chairs and tables. Our government and the country in general CANNOT survive without the little guys...the workers....the ones that build and put together the things that Rich people are so eager to lavish on themselves. Where will the merchandise come from if the workers are lost??????The Chinese can't do it all!! The rich are pulling the rug out from under them selves and are too greedy to know it!!!!!!!
You know what people, get over yourselves. You think that if Obama got out and a republican replaced him anything will change. NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE. The only difference is that Obama atleast has good intentions. But these blood sucking republicans will make the middle class and the the poor pay for everything while the 1% percent will enjoy the riches. You people think you are so smart telling Obama caused all of this. Get your facts straight, Bush took us to this war, he ruined the economy, and just because Obama was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he is being blamed. But I won't even take sides. All policiticians are the same. Nothing will change unless people of this country do something about it.
The Democrats have done an excellent job of beating themselves.
I hope people will remember the democrats are for the people and the President can't do a lot with nothing but filerbusters during the first part of Obama term and now they will not let anything come out of the house that will help people get a job. The teaparty repubs don't care if everyone starve, have no money, no house, no job, no health care. They just want Obama out and we need to stand firm and vote as many republicans out as we can. Also the banks and financial system have spent BILLIONS to stop all financial regulations after we bailed them out. These six leading banks own 60% of the US GDP and Cantor help shield these financial institutions. Just go to show how much they care about the regular folks.
There is always that possibility but will the American people be to stupid as to fall into the cesspool of lies created by the GOP'ers? They took the House by saying they would creat jobs... where is there any indication of even the slightest effort to fulfilling that pledge? If as a [people we are so niave to be duped by this Party of Liars, we fully deserve the ruin that will surely befall us....
President Obama or any of the dirtbags the Republicans have come up with (a libertarian, a MN nutcase, a flip-flopper, a pizza guy with no govt experience, or a Bush clone).
PAH-LEEZZ! It's Obama, without a shred of doubt in my mind.