Biden on foreign policy: Obama "has a big stick"

Updated at 10:30 p.m. ET

(CBS News) NEW YORK - Campaigning for the president on his foreign policy record, Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday that his decision to kill Osama bin Laden shows that the president has a "backbone like a ramrod."

"Thanks to President Obama, bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," Biden said, referring to last year's killing of Osama bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan and the taxpayer bailout of General Motors.

"You have to ask yourself, 'had Governor Romney been president, could he have used the same slogan in reverse?' People are going to make that judgment. It's a legitimate thing to speculate on," Biden said.

In his remarks at the New York University Law School, the vice president reminded the audience of a statement Romney made in 2007 to the Associated Press that the United States shouldn't waste billions of dollars chasing bin Laden.

"It is not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just to catch one person," Biden said, quoting Romney. "Here is how candidate Obama answered that question: He said, quote, 'If I have bin Laden in my sights, I will take him out. I will kill bin Laden. We will crush Al Qaeda. This has to be our biggest national security priority.'"

Biden suggested that President Obama is the clear choice this election and made the joke that the incumbent candidate has a lot to be confident about.

"I promise you, the president has a big stick," Biden said.

Biden spoke to students and faculty on campus in his fifth campaign speech, and he attacked Romney for a lack of foreign policy experience.

"It seems to me, Gov. Romney's fundamental thinking about the role of the president on foreign policy is fundamentally wrong," Biden said. "That kind of thinking may work for a CEO, but I assure you it will not and cannot work for a president and will not work for a commander in chief."

Just before Biden gave his speech bashing Romney's credibility, the Romney campaign's foreign policy team held a conference call to counter the vice president's attacks.

"If anything, it is President Obama's track record that has sent a message to our friends and allies, be they in governments or be they in dissident movements who want to stand with us, who want to lock arms with us, who are looking to American leadership, who are really left exposed and isolated in a way that I have not seen in American foreign policy history for years," Dan Senor, Romney foreign policy adviser said to reporters on the conference call.

The Romney surrogates went on to say that it was unwise to publicly announce the 2014 withdrawal date from Afghanistan.

"Mitt Romney will never announce or will not announce our military plans to enemies like the Taliban; now, does Mitt Romney still think the 2014 time frame is operable as a point at which we can hand over combat operations? Based on conditions on the ground as evaluated by the military commanders, he does," Alex Wong, Romney's foreign policy director, said. "But he would never have publicly announced and publicly communicated that date to our enemies."

During his speech in New York, Biden addressed this assertion head on, saying the U.S. publicly sets dates for troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan in order to convince leaders in those nations they had to take control of their own countries.

[drstahl]

Biden is an embarassment to the country. He is trying too hard to be cool. What a complete buffoon.

[slatep]

I think Biden has had another brain fart.!

[michaelz06]

One of the many weaknesses of the Obama campaign is having Biden as the "attack dog". For the most part, he comes across as dumber than a pile of rocks, with less sincerety.

[smirk5]

The Mission to Get Bin Laden if Romney was President:

"This is President Romney, go ahead with your mission."
5 minutes later
"This is me, President Romney again, forget it, I don't support going ahead with the mission"
5 minutes later
"Yes, it's me again, did you get him? What? I never said I didn't support the mission."

[michaelz06]

well, at least your screen name describes your humor well...

[jflynn5110]

Obama has a big stick. Waay too much information.

[AmericanFrog]

You people against Obama-Biden are living in caves, your heads in sand. You repubes / libertarians hate the fact that this president has DONE MUCH MORE GOOD for this country than your dummy George W. EVER DID. Screaming socialism - what a joke! The banks and auto companies are PRIVATE! Yeah! The money's been paid back! He SAVED the economy, he saved the auto industry, HE GOT US OUT OF IRAQ, KILLED BIN LADEN, Libya in and out, the economy's turning around, people are going back to work, the housing market is improving, la de la de la. Obama-Biden 2012! And one more thing, I'd rather go hunting with Joe Biden that that Dick C any day.

[maltorfer]

I just love Joe Biden!

[JimGoad]

"Ramrod" and "big stick" in the same article. Apparently the Democrats plan on playing the Phallus Card this election year.

[releggneh1]

A big stick when Iran & North Korea are just days away from testing their nuclear weapons> I feel so safe.

[Antespo]

Are you serious? There is no proof that Iran is a nuclear threat...even Israel knows that. North Korea can't even launch a missile successfully. Stop the propaganda machine and let's start saving money instead of perpetual war. Ron Paul IS the only option we have right now to bring our country back to what our founding fathers envisioned. Obama and Romney are both big government candidates that will spend our way into a worthless dollar.

[notreich]

Yeah, and when they get them (N.Korea already has them) they are just going to automatically attack and decimate the USA? So let's just attack those two countries, surely it will work out great, is that what you're saying? Actually, just today the Israeli military chief said the sanctions were working and there's no need for any imminent war with Iran. He joins a host of former top military and intelligence people there (and here. So looks like the Republicans big plan to talk up war and gas prices ahead of the election has failed.

[American72]

"Obama has a big stick". Obama has a big mouth, apologizing for America's actions numerous times. A pro-America person would not do this.

[Obama4more]

But a leader with integrity would...

[michaelz06]

by Obama4more
"But a leader with integrity would..."

Well, if we ever get one, I suppose we could test your theory, however misguided it is.