Biden: We are better off, "bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive"

Vice President Joe Biden greets people after speaking at the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO Labor Day Rally, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, in Detroit.

/ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

(CBS News) Vice President Joe Biden aggressively defended the Obama administration's record on Monday in the wake of another leading Democrat flubbing the "Are you better off" question over the weekend.

"You want to know whether we're better off?" Biden said to a cheering crowd of about 3,500 people in downtown Detroit. "I've got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

The vice president spoke at a Labor Day rally of AFL-CIO workers, where many wore union T-shirts, Tigers baseball caps and even a few firefighter helmets. Biden reaffirmed the administration's support of unions and hit back at Republican attacks on President Obama's "you didn't build that" comment. He also suggested that Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be no friend to labor in the White House.

"Look folks, we know who built this country and we know who is going to re-build it. It's you," Biden said. "Instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. We owe you."

"Folks, you're the reason that the automobile industry is back. Whether it was the wage freezes, the plant closures, folks, you sacrificed to keep your companies open," Biden said. "Because of your productivity, the combined auto companies have committed to invest another $23 billion in expansion in America."

Of Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, he said, "They don't believe in your very right to bargain. ... They view you, the working men and women of America, as the problem. You're the solution in America."

President Obama has been on the defensive since the weekend when his political surrogates seemed unprepared for a standard question of modern presidential elections. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley was asked on CBS News' "Face the Nation" whether people are better off today than they were four years ago. O'Malley answered, "No, but that's not the question of this election."

Romney campaign spokesman Amanda Henneberg issued a statement in response to Biden's speech that said, in part, "The truth is that the middle class has been crushed in the Obama economy. Unemployment remains high, incomes have fallen, and gas prices have doubled. Americans aren't better off than they were four years ago, and they deserve a president who recognizes that."

[Blazing_Patriot]

Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. - Joe Biden

My son is dead too and I vow to never, ever buy another General Motors vehicle again! - Hard working taxpayer and grieving father of a fallen soldier.

[senileJoe]

Poor old buffoon thinks that everybody in America works for GM. Really really pitiful. Joe - American is not better off!

[infantryman1968]

Biden: We are better off, "bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive"


LOL!

So Obama did his job by allowing the U.S. military to go into Pakistan so they could take out Bin Laden and Obama used tax payer money to bail out the unions so he could use tax payer money their products..........

Really Joe?

The sad part is he actually believes it.

[fiberglass3]

Looking back at 2008, yes we are much better off.

Looking forward to another 4 years of President Obama and yes we will all be far better off than the option.

[nvrat]

GM has survived this year because 79% of their sales were to the US Government for replacement vehicles. Obama made sure that somebody bought their products, after all, they are owned by the Government Taxpayers, so it appears that we are bailing them out again. The rest of the taxpayer business's like Solyndra, 123GEN, and others have long gone broke with millions of dollars just disappearing like the company`s themselves.

[alkjdklfj]

why goverment gample with business?

[ForestWalk]

YES!! I may not be better off - but the country is!!

[alkjdklfj]

how did general motors got alive?
with goverment help.
obama is smart. he will get the worker's vote.
but what happened after he get elected?
who going to help the us goverment from shutting down?
maybe china will buy america!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aintfakin]

Drumitupyakaheima September 3, 2012 10:17 PM EDT
We aren't commies. How many times do you need to be reminded??
------------------------------------------------

you sure as hell would be if you had the chance. You are suppressing the vote
you are obstructing in congress and you and your candidates are lying through their teeth.
what you really are is
either a millionaires or a sucker

[aintfakin]

Killing Been Laden and saving GM were bad ideas according to all the right wing mouth breathers in here
gang banging before country


If Romney gets elected I see a complete rerun of the Bush presidency. You have an incompetent airhead for a president and an extremist vice pres who is really running the show just to fill up his and his buddies pockets
WITH YOUR TAX MONEY

[bbglow]

Crysler on 60 minutes:

Imported from Detroit ...

Steve Kroft: What do you think of American workers?
Marchionne: I think the world of American workers. What happened here at Chrysler would have been impossible without the commitment that they've shown. Absolutely impossible.

Steve Kroft: Were they on the management fast track?
Sergio Marchionne: No. Some of these people were buried inside an incredibly hierarchical organization that, you know, all pointed to the top. This place was run by a chairman's office.
...

Sergio Marchionne: That's the Tower, right?
Steve Kroft: Uh-huh (affirm).
Sergio Marchionne: And the chairman's office is the top floor. It's empty now. We use it as a tourist trap. We bring people up there.
Steve Kroft: Why did you leave?
Sergio Marchionne: Because nothing happens there.

Steve Kroft: Republicans said that this was a campaign commercial for President Obama. A payback. Did you anticipate that criticism?
Sergio Marchionne: Just to rectify the record here, I paid back the loans and 19.7 percent interest. I don't think that I committed to do a commercial on top of that. I thought that the Republicans' reactions to this was unnecessary and out of place.
Steve Kroft: That's very restrained from you-- for you.
Sergio Marchionne: It is. I'm on camera. You put me here. You turn these things off, I'll give you my own assessment.


~~~ Wake up republicans, your crap smack is over ...