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McCain banking on Biden gaffe

Ad highlights 'crisis' remark

By Michael Kranish
Globe Staff / October 28, 2008
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WASHINGTON - After absorbing weeks of criticism about Sarah Palin's qualifications to be vice president, John McCain's campaign is highlighting the most controversial statements of Joe Biden, arguing that the Democratic vice presidential nominee has provided some of the best evidence against Barack Obama's candidacy.

With only a week until Election Day, the McCain campaign is spending some of its limited resources on a television commercial that includes a recording of Biden warning that there will be an effort to purposefully ""test"" Obama with an international crisis. The narrator of the ad urges voters to ""listen to Joe Biden talking about what electing Barack Obama will mean.""

It is unusual for an ad focused on the words of a vice presidential nominee to be launched in the final stages of a campaign. But with so much attention on questions about Palin, along with the recent dust-up about the $150,000 wardrobe purchased by the Republican National Committee for her use, the McCain campaign is trying to shift from defending Palin to going on the offensive against Biden. The campaign views it at a twofer, using Biden's words in an effort to undercut Obama.

""We discovered he was making our argument for us, he was making the case against Barack Obama,"" said Ben Porrit, a spokesman for the McCain campaign. In addition to the television ad, the McCain campaign is seeking to publicize what it calls Biden's greatest gaffes, including the Delaware senator's comment that an ad criticizing McCain's lack of computer skills was ""terrible"" and his comment that it is ""patriotic"" for wealthier people to pay higher taxes.

Even Obama seemed to be defensive after hearing Biden's comment that there would be a deliberate effort to test Obama, saying that Biden sometimes engages in ""rhetorical flourishes.""

The McCain campaign, which has complained for weeks that Palin is subject to tougher scrutiny than Biden, believes that the criticism of Biden has reached a critical mass. That view may have been reinforced when last weekend's edition of ""Saturday Night Live"" led off with a sketch that mocked Biden's comments, and did not include the usual Tina Fey impersonation of Palin.

The effort comes amid reports that Palin has tried to assert some independence from her handlers in the McCain campaign, such as her suggestion that the campaign criticize Obama for his association with his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, notwithstanding McCain's statement that he wouldn't make such an attack. She also disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull financial resources out of Michigan, and said the automated phone calls attacking Obama weren't helpful. McCain disputed reports of tension in the campaign.

A Biden spokesman said the campaign is not concerned about becoming a target of attack in the McCain campaign ad. ""The fact they are running this kind of advertisement this late in the election is an admission on their part that they can't talk about the number one issue before voters, which is the economy,"" Biden spokesman David Wade said.

The increased focus on Biden's gaffes has led to media reports that Biden is being cloistered from the media and the public, but Wade disputed that idea, saying that Biden yesterday did 10 television interviews, either live or via satellite, in battleground states.

In an interview last week on Florida television station WFTV, anchorwoman Barbara West irritated Biden by asking, ""How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?"" Biden asked whether West was ""joking"" and his campaign subsequently said Biden's wife, Jill, would not make a planned appearance on the station. The McCain campaign said Biden was ""leveling attacks on local reporters who ask challenging questions."" Biden later criticized the anchor for asking ""ugly"" questions.

In running the advertisement about Biden's comments, the McCain campaign is returning to what it initially believed would be its strongest argument: that McCain has the experience to deal with an international crisis and that Obama has not been tested. But some political analysts question whether that argument has been undermined by the selection of Palin, who had virtually no foreign policy experience and did not meet a foreign head of state until she became a vice presidential candidate.

Kevin Madden, a former spokesman for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, said Biden's comment about Obama being tested by an international crisis ""fit perfectly"" with the McCain campaign's closing argument that Obama is ""an untested leader, a risky choice."" But Madden noted ""some will say that the Palin pick complicated the ability of the campaign to draw a very distinct, very clear contrast on the readiness argument.""

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said yesterday that ""Biden has gotten off easy in this campaign"" in comparison with Palin. The reason, he said, is that Biden is ""the boring one,"" while McCain, Palin, and Obama ""are black holes that have sucked in all available light and media attention.""

While Sabato viewed Palin as a ""highly unwise, unprepared"" choice who has hurt McCain's chances, he said that Biden has stumbled frequently.

Biden, in a recent appearance on ""The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,"" said that he now refrains from speaking with supporters along rope lines at rallies out of concern that he will make an offhand comment that will be picked up by the media. ""I learned to just go, 'Mm, mm, mm, mm,' "" Biden said.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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