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Vice President Campaigns In Lancaster
By: Michael Locklear
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In a final push for votes in Lancaster, Vice President Joe Biden said character is the quality that separates the two presidential candidates.
“My guy, Barack Obama, your president, he's got character,” Biden said. “He's got the character of his convictions. He does not engage in deception. He does not mislead. He says what he means, means what he says and stands by it.”
Biden appeared Sunday evening with his wife and other family members at Rushville Middle School in Fairfield County, where Republican John McCain got 58 percent of the vote four years ago.
Campaign volunteers say the vice president's visit was an attempt to make the county a little “bluer.”
“I think that Biden will just raise the enthusiasm level and help us to get out all of our supporters,” said Kaye Martin, a canvasser for the Obama campaign in Lancaster.
In his 16-minute speech, Biden said it was clear who has character and who doesn't.
He pointed to a Romney ad in which the narrator says “Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job.”
“Ladies and gentleman, this ad is absolutely callous,” Biden said. “It's preying on the fears of people who are just getting back on their feet. Both GM and Chrysler denounce the Romney ads as untrue. They denounce them as a lie. Have you ever recall in any presidential race where two major American corporations with a week left to go in the campaign said the Republican candidate's lying?”
Biden also took aim at Romney for the comments he made about “the 47 percent” when he didn't know he was being recorded.
His wife spoke for about three minutes before he stepped up to the mic. A professor at a community college, Jill Biden said she was grateful for the Obama administration's investment in education. She also thanked the Democratic ticket for protecting women's reproductive rights.
Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz performed for about half an hour before the Bidens took the stage.
The group traveled to three Ohio cities on Sunday: Lakewood, Fremont, then Lancaster.
Joe Biden was optimistic about the role of the Buckeye State in the election.
“Forty-eight more hours, and it will be all she wrote,” he said. “We'll know what's going on, and we're gonna be able to declare because of Ohio that we have won the election in 48 hours.”