Secret Weapon

Joe Biden Campaigns in Eastern Ohio

To hit Romney, help Obama.

Vice President Joe Biden is in eastern Ohio this week on behalf of the president—demonstrating his value for the reelection campaign as he travels to areas Obama himself won’t be able to hit. “As much as political insiders joke about Joe Biden, he’s indispensable to the Obama ticket,” said one Republican strategist. Biden will speak at manufacturing plants and auto dealerships in the Mahoning and Ohio Valleys and plans to further the campaign’s attack on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, referencing—according to early-released excerpts of the speech—a Missouri steel mill that “had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later it went bankrupt.”