Swamp: He said he was impressed with what he heard Wednesday night, but also had questions about what he didn't hear. And he dismissed as "Rovian'' the attacks that Palin made against Barack Obama. Of Palin's suggestion that the presidency is not a personal "journey,'' Biden said: "Talk about a guy [Obama] who's had a journey. This is a guy who knows what he's about.
Biden, the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee, said in an interview aired Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show" that the convention address by his Republican counterpart "was a skillfully delivered political speech with confidence and directness and so I think she did what she was supposed to do. I was impressed.
"I was also impressed by what I didn't hear in the speech,'' he added. "I didn't hear ... the phrase middle-class mentioned, I didn't hear a word about health care. I didn't hear a single word about what we're going to do about the housing crisis, college education, all the things that the middle class is being burdened by now.
This morning on ABC, McCain's tax guy says the middle class doesn't need a tax cut. They plan to keep the tax cuts for the rich, who will create the jobs for the rest of us. In theory.
More from waPo:
Barack Obama's top political adviser called Sarah Palin "a skilled politician" but said her speech last night mirrored the rest of the Republican convention in producing "an awful lot of heat and no light."
Speaking to reporters aboard Obama's campaign plane, David Axelrod said the candidate watched snippets of Palin's tough performance and wasn't surprised by the barbs, including the mocking descriptions by Palin and former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani about Obama's early career as a community organizer.
"Senator Obama is taking the whole thing in stride," Axelrod said. "I don't think he expected gingerly treatment. This is what politicians do when they don't have a record to run on."
He added, "What are they going to talk about? Eight years of peace and prosperity? It is phenomenal when you think about it, that we're into the final day of the convention and not one serious word about the state of the economy, not one serious word about where they would lead. We've heard again and again that John McCain was a prisoner of war, for which we all honor him and respect him. But heck, we knew that before the convention."
Obama camp respects Paln:
WaPo: But the speech did get the Obama camp's attention. "We respect her," said Axelrod. "She's a skilled politician, as she proved last night. She's deft going on the attack. For someone who makes the point that she's not from Washington, she looks very much like she'd fit in very well there."
