Biden Stumps in Palin's Shadow
Democrats Split on Running Mate's Ability to Energize Base

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 14, 2008

On Wednesday, thousands of people crowded into a Fairfax County park for Sen. John McCain's first rally in the Washington region with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose appearance drew the same sort of media attention that she has enjoyed since joining the GOP ticket just more than two weeks ago.

The same day, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. hosted a town hall meeting in New Hampshire with a crowd of more than 800. Biden hasn't made much of a splash since joining the Democratic ticket, but on this day, he did. In response to a question, he voiced a view many Democrats now hold, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) "might have been a better pick than me" to be Sen. Barack Obama's running mate.

When the senator from Illinois tapped Biden late last month, most Democrats were exuberant, thinking he would add badly needed experience and foreign policy credentials to the ticket, deliver attacks against McCain and bolster Obama's support among voters who have been skeptical of his candidacy.

But the buzz around Palin has left Biden largely obscured and generating so little attention that some Democrats are questioning whether he was the right pick.

When asked about Biden's impact, Democratic pollster Doug Schoen said: "What impact? The best thing you can say about Biden is he has no discernible impact. It's like it's two against one."

Many Clinton supporters say Palin's presence has only strengthened their argument that Obama should have chosen the senator from New York instead.

"I'm a big Joe Biden fan, but it's clear to me if Obama had picked Hillary, we wouldn't be in this mess," said Allida M. Black, a George Washington University professor who served on Clinton's national finance committee during the primaries. Lamenting that Obama's lead in the polls has vanished since the Palin pick, Black said the senator's campaign "should have seen this coming."

While Palin has become a pop culture phenomenon, Biden has done what most vice presidential candidates do: campaign in front of small audiences, host fundraisers and try to avoid gaffes. And Biden defenders argue that although Palin has so far campaigned alongside McCain -- and might continue to do so for much of the rest of the run -- the Democratic ticket is reaching twice as many audiences and media markets by traveling separately.

And although Biden's comments about Clinton drew national attention, a report in the Nashua Telegraph carried exactly the sort of headline the Obama campaign had envisioned when it picked Biden: "In city, Biden tears into McCain."

"When you come into these states as president or vice president, you make a tremendous impact," said strategist Tad Devine, who was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of Al Gore in 2000 and Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004. "If they keep Palin with McCain, they are hitting half the markets of the Obama campaign. That's a real liability for them."

Obama aides suggested that when Biden was picked, the selection was a "governing decision" as well as a political choice, saying his foreign policy experience would be an asset to the younger Obama if they prevail in November. In the meantime, Biden's prescribed role has been to attack McCain and pitch Obama to working-class voters, seniors, Jewish voters and other demographics that have been slow to embrace the man at the top of the ticket.

"There's no question that Senator Biden has strengths with some voters that haven't been a core base of Barack Obama's voters, and that's a huge advantage," said Anita Dunn, an Obama strategist.

This week, the senator from Delaware will seek to elevate his place in the debate, taking on McCain's foreign policy views in a speech in Michigan on Monday and making a bus tour through Midwestern battleground states. But Obama's efforts will continue to focus on building up Obama and making the argument against McCain, not tearing down Palin, aides said.

On the stump, Biden's speeches are full of attempts to connect Obama to audiences and cast him as an average American. Biden speaks fondly of a slumber party in Denver at which Obama's two daughters joined Biden's three granddaughters. He noted the "chemistry" between their wives.

"If Barack Obama grew up in my neighborhood in Scranton or Claymont or Wilmington, Delaware, he would have been the guy who had my back," Biden told a crowd in West Palm Beach, Fla., on a recent campaign stop. "If you're looking for a very sophisticated Harvard graduate who went to Columbia undergrad and was president of the Law Review, he's totally intellectual. Baby, you ain't seen nothing yet. This guy is steel."

Biden often goes into great detail about his friendship with McCain, with whom he has served in the Senate since 1987, while slamming McCain's policies.

Edward G. Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania and a Clinton backer during the primaries, said Biden is a major asset to Obama in the Keystone State. "He may not have quite as much of a discernible impact as Governor Palin, but over the long run, he might prove more valuable," Rendell said. "He's a great person in energizing our traditional base."

Obama aides dismiss recent national polls that showed female voters shifting toward McCain after he picked Palin. Instead, Dunn argued, the selections of Biden and Palin, along with the excitement surrounding the conventions, helped both parties consolidate their bases.

Despite the attention gap Palin has created, many Democrats maintain that it will be clear by Election Day that Biden is a stronger candidate than Palin.

"You've had this dynamic of Sarah Palin sucking the oxygen out of the room . . . and Joe Biden has had his role kind of pushed to the side by this energy around Palin," said Steve Grossman, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

"I say to my friends, 'Look, folks, you have to take a deep breath and count to 10. There will be any number of times in the next 52 days where the American people will have a look at Joe Biden, and, at the end of the day, he will bring rock-solid credentials and good judgment on national security.' "