Democrats claim financial struggles to relate to middle class

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, the two most visible Democrats likely running for president, are already trying to convince you that they identify with the concerns of middle-class voters. So far, it's only serving to remind voters of their relative wealth, CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.

Speaking to a White House summit on working families, Vice President Biden admitted he makes more money than most, before playing up his everyman roots.

"Don't hold it against me that I don't own a single stock or bond, don't hold it," said Biden. "I don't have a savings account. But I got a great pension and I got a great salary."

But according to Biden's most recent financial disclosure, he has money in 11 different investment funds and as much as 15,000 dollars in a savings account. His office says the Vice President was telling the truth - because the investments belong to his wife.

Biden isn't the only potential 2016 candidate to exaggerate his humble circumstances in an effort to connect. Hillary Clinton told ABC news she and her husband struggled financially after leaving the white house.

"We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt," Clinton said. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea's education. It was not easy."

Millionaire Mitt Romney also tried to relate during a 2012 speech.

"I know what it's like to worry whether you're gonna get fired," he said. "There were a couple of times I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip."

In 2008, President Obama tried bowling in Pennsylvania.

In 2004, John Kerry looked for a boost in battleground Ohio by going goose hunting shortly before the election.

One of the most notable instances of this was a campaign stop near Cleveland in 1972, Plante reports. Vice Presidential Candidate Sargent Shriver stopped in a bar near an auto assembly plant and ordered a round for the house. The bartender asked Shriver what he wanted. His answer: Courvoisier cognac.