One of the great democratizing benefits of the web when it comes to politics is that no matter what a person’s work schedule is they can, if they look for it, watch nearly any campaign speech whenever they want.  The Jed Report has just released a stinging campaign video of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden ripping into the GOP for “completely ignoring every single major economic issue facing America and for offering nothing but sarcastic personal attacks.”  Watch:

For those that can’t watch video the transcript is below the fold:

Joe Biden: I tell you, it’s not so much what I heard at the Republican convention, when you heard John speak last night.  Or not so much what I heard when I heard part of what what the Governor had to say as the vice presidential candidate.  It’s what I didn’t hear.  The silence of the Republican Party was deafening!  It was deafening on jobs, on health care, on the environment, on all the things that matter to the people in the neighborhoods I grew up in! Deafening!

Lady’s and Gentlemen. Their America is not the American I live in.  They see something different then I see.  Lady’s and Gentlemen.  I can’t swear to this because I didn’t see every bit of every speech but I asked my staff check: do any of you recall either candidate on the Republican ticket utter the phrase, “middle class”?  Did any of you hear them utter the phrase, “health care”?

Lady’s and Gentlemen. Rick Davis, John’s campaign manager, said at the convention that this election is “not about issues.”  That’s what he said.  And everything I saw at the convention demonstrated that.  It was about how well placed and, boy she is good, how a left-jab can be stuck pretty nice.  It’s bout how Barack Obama is such a bad guy.  It’s about how, in fact, they had great quips.

Man, they were like the kids you knew when you went to school and you were proud of the new belt you had or the shoes you had and there was always one kid in the class who was like, “Oh, were they your brothers?”  Remember that kid?  That’s what this reminded me of.  “Oh I like that dress, was that your mothers?”  You know what I’m talking about.

What do you talk about when you have nothing to say?  What do you talk about when you cannot explain the last eight years of failure?  What do you talk about?  What do you talk about?  You talk about the other guy.

I wasn’t around when Harry Truman was around but I remember my grandfather saying when they yelled “Give em hell Harry!” he yelled back, “I’m not going to give em Hell.  I’m gonna tell them the truth and they’re gonna think it’s hell.”

Now, some on the left are afraid that Biden’s admission that outside of politics he considers John McCain a friend might somehow cost Democrats the elections.  They’re following the “Michael Moore campaign playbook” and while their fear may be partially justified they’re missing the point.  Playing direct gutter ball, sinking to the GOP’s level, won’t work this time around.

One of the Democrats greatest strengths in this election isn’t that they’ve finally developed a backbone, it’s that the Obama ticket refuses to directly sling mud.  They’re leaving the attacks mostly to the media, to their surrogates and to the bloggers.  What this this video of Joe Biden demonstrates is that, unlike for the Republicans, staying on the issues and not playing by the GOP’s rules is just as effective an attack strategy.  Obama didn’t just pick the guy for veep because he’s an experienced Washington insider after all; the man’s a “pit bull” in his own right.

When the Right pats themselves on the back because they’ve found a two-faced vindictive, racist, and sexist attack dog they forget one thing: No matter how much they might crow about how great their TV ratings are the economy is terrible, the American people are struggling. Far from being a bad move Obama’s selection of Biden as his veep is turning out to be nearly prescient.  Keven Hayden of American Street:

I’d always assumed he was just another longtime member of the Millionaire’s Club, out of touch with middle America. He never sold himself as the Joe Biden Obama introduced to us: the guy who DIDN’T line his pockets as a Senator. The guy who commutes 2 hours and 110 miles each way and every work day, so he can spend each night at home withh his family. The guy who survived terrible family tragedies.

[...]

Whatever caused this synergy, I can only guess. But it’s clear that Obama found a helluva fighter and a guy far nicer than I thought was there.

I certainly can understand now why several Republican Senators confided to Harry Reid that they’d be voting for this ticket. More than the partisan divide, they respect and admire the kind of guy he is. Obama’s first major decision of the administration he hopes to lead was far better than I thought it was when he announced it.