Democrats See the Pros and Cons of Letting Biden Be Biden

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Obama and Biden on the Trail

In the days leading up to the first vice presidential debate, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and running mate Sen. Joe Biden (Del.) campaigned across the country, in an effort to turn out early votes.

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And Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's communications director, rejected any suggestion that Biden's role in the campaign would be reduced or changed, calling him a "huge asset" who was "in the battleground states, dominating the media coverage."

Some Democrats have suggested -- as Biden himself did recently -- that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been a better choice as Obama's running mate, but on the whole the party appears satisfied with him.

Kiki McLean, who was an adviser on Clinton's campaign and served on the staff of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) when he was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, said Biden's gaffes were "very human moments."

"He's very on-message on foreign policy and the economy," she said.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who advised the senator from Delaware during his own primary campaign, called the controversial remarks "Biden being Biden." Lake said focus groups of non-college-educated white voters, a group that has been a weak point for Obama, suggest Biden is helping sell Obama to skeptical audiences despite his occasional gaffes.

Biden has long been known for speaking for too long and making occasionally odd remarks, such as when he declared Obama "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" when Biden launched his White House bid in early 2007. A few months earlier he had spoken of the prevalence of Indian accents in Dunkin' Donuts and 7-Eleven stores.

Initially hailed by the party as someone who would add experience as well as appeal to key voting groups such as Catholics, Biden has drawn little attention in recent weeks, crowded out of the media spotlight first by Palin and now by the financial meltdown.

Biden often travels with fewer than a dozen reporters, and even his aggressive attacks on McCain have generated little attention in national news, although Obama aides point out he often makes the front pages of local newspapers in the cities he visits. At the same time, many of those papers ran stories about his coal comments this week as well.

Bartlett, who is not formally involved with the McCain campaign, described Biden as "a rhetorical train wreck." He added: "Every utterance matters. But when he was announced I considered him to be a very good pick, and I haven't really changed my opinion."