Obama prepares to unleash Biden on McCain

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama temporarily toned down his campaign as Hurricane Ike made its devastating sweep across Texas, while his running mate Joe Biden prepared to take on a more prominent role in criticising his old friend and now rival, Republican John McCain.

Part of Mr Biden’s appeal as a running mate is his comfort in debating opponents and tearing them down – something that is not always Mr Obama’s strong suit, although the Illinois senator is taking a more aggressive tone in the campaign’s final weeks as the polls show him lagging slightly behind Mr McCain.

“He’s a closer,” Mr Biden’s spokesman David Wade said, using a baseball term for a pitcher brought in for the closing innings to defend a winning position.

“He’s the vice presidential nominee you want slugging it out in the late innings when proven campaign skills, intestinal fortitude, expertise and experience matter most.”

Mr McCain has enjoyed a marked surge in the polls following his surprise choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-president, despite criticism from Democrats that the 44-year-old mother of five is not qualified for the job.

Mrs Palin’s arrival on the election scene last week energised like-minded conservatives and pulled a core Republican constituency closer to a candidate they had initially eyed with suspicion.

Mr Obama has called Mrs Palin a “phenomenon” and acknowledged she has given the Republican ticket a boost.

But his aides say Mr McCain is vulnerable to new criticisms because he has stretched the truth in recent comments and ads, and because Mrs Palin was shaky on foreign policy in a recent interview with ABC News.

Belittling Mr McCain as a relic of the disco age in an ad, Mr Obama pushed his campaign to a new level of counter-punching “on the issues that matter” and directed his running mate to be tougher on their Republican opponents.

The ads follow several from the McCain campaign, one which said Mr Obama favoured comprehensive sex education for kindergarten students and another that suggested Mr Obama had called Mrs Palin a pig. Both are factually inaccurate.

But Mr Obama had to tone down his counterattack because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike in Texas.

He cancelled plans to appear on the season premiere of the television comedy show Saturday Night Live. The campaign also decided to scale back an outdoor rally in New Hampshire, announcing that Mr Biden would not join Mr Obama as originally scheduled.

Still, in an outdoor rally attended by thousands, he discussed the “quiet storms that are taking place throughout America” as people lose their jobs, health care and pensions, and he argued that Mr McCain is out of touch with those struggles.