Wall Street Journal
There’s something about Joe Biden in Charlotte. Anyone who took in Mr. Biden’s voluble speech at the Democratic convention there last month couldn’t be surprised at the irrepressible Veep’s “gaffe” on a return visit Tuesday.
Deep into the campaign’s official whopper that Mitt Romney will raise taxes on the middle class, the Vice President launched himself into a full Biden. “This is deadly earnest, man. This is deadly earnest,” he said. “How they can justify, how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years? How in Lord’s name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?”
For a more complete deconstruction of the notion that tax cuts will raise taxes, please see the nearby editorial, “Romney’s Middle-Class Tax Sale.” But Mr. Biden is being roasted for preaching a requiem for the middle class. Obviously what Mr. Biden “meant to say,” had he memorized the Obama campaign script, was that “George Bush” buried the middle class with his across-the-board tax cuts.
In our view, Mr. Biden deserves gratitude for having the courage to break the Obama campaign’s code of silence on the economy. You’re supposed to talk about the economy before Mr. Obama was President and after his re-election. But none dare discuss the four years during his Presidency.
Thanks to Joe Biden, everyone in the Denver debate—challenger, incumbent and moderator — can talk about the economy everyone is living, or buried in, right now.
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