Romney’s Response To Biden A Campaign Turning Point

With all the talk surrounding Paul Ryan it might be easy to forget all about the current Vice President Joe Biden. Not content unless he’s the center of attention, Biden created a firestorm yesterday when warned a crowd about the Republicans “they gonna put y’all back in chains.” This man is a heartbeat away from the White House and he’s accusing the other party of desiring to enslave people. Interestingly the crowd wasn’t all black so what Biden actually meant by “back in chains” is anyone’s guess. He might not even know, Biden rarely remembers what state he’s in these days. 

The Romney camp struck back declaring that Biden’s comments were offensive and not fitting for a Vice President. The Obama camp struck back in defense of Biden, claiming that some Republicans said they wanted to “unshackle” business. Apparently in the Obama spin room the Republicans, not even Romney mind you, opened the door to slavery language by desiring to unshackle business from overbearing government regulation. You would think reasonable people would see the difference between “unshackling” business from regulations and declaring that the GOP wants to enslave people. Sadly, reasonable people don’t spin things for the Obama campaign.

Romney was surprisingly tough on Biden’s comments. Romney said at a campaign stop in Ohio “Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.” Romney took it a step further suggesting that all of the smears coming from the Obama campaign are disgracing the office of the President. He then tied the smears to the fundamental failures in the Obama administration and his total lack of new ideas for a second term. This is a surprisingly combative speech coming from a candidate who up until yesterday has campaigned in an extremely conservative and cautious manner. Perhaps Biden’s comment caused Romney to decide enough is enough.

Biden’s line was ridiculous. It is another in a long line of inappropriate and degrading comments from this Vice President. The Democrats just don’t seem to care so long as Biden is attacking the people Obama called “the enemy.” This is who we’re dealing with, people who believe that the 45% who vote every year for Republicans are the enemy to say nothing of the people actually carrying GOP cards in their wallet. That Obama and company don’t care about Biden’s incendiary comments really shouldn’t surprise anyone. At this point Biden can say anything and the Democrats will lock arms in support of him, at least in public.

What is really interesting though is Romney’s response. He’s clearly had enough of the nonsense and is ready to fight back. He seems energized and ready to go. This can’t be anything but good for Republicans, many of whom were getting tired of seeing Romney shy away from the fight over the last couple months. That Romney is willing to call Obama’s campaign a campaign of division, anger and hate suggests that he’s in this to win it. Not only that, he’s spot on about the Obama campaign. Obama can’t win over independents to his political views so he’s going to create a campaign of anger, division and hate among core Democrat constituencies, particularly where race is involved.

Everyone wants to say that the Ryan selection is going to be the turning point in the race or Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment will be looked back at as the turning point. Those are both important moments in this campaign. But we may look back at yesterday’s Romney speech as the real turning point in the election. It was the speech in which Romney declared that he isn’t going to take it anymore and that he’s in it to win it. If Romney goes forward refusing to get pushed around by the Obama bully machine while tying the bully machine to Obama’s lack of success and vision this could be a real close race.