CANTON, OH -- Vice President Joe Biden has begun to take a different tack toward GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, taking aim at Romney's lurch toward the center on some issues and refusal to answer specifics on others.
Biden declared that the GOP ticket wasn't "hiding the ball" when it came to their agenda while campaigning earlier this year, but has begun to deliver a new message since the first presidential debate.
Seeking to hammer that message home in all-important swing state Ohio, Biden told a boisterous crowd Monday that "we are seeing the remaking of Mitt Romney right before our eyes."
Speaking to about 800 supporters at a Canton gymnasium, Biden cited women's rights and Afghanistan as policy areas where Romney's agenda is "etch-a-sketchy."
"This guy is out of touch on most of the fundamental issues," said Biden. "America's moved beyond where these guys are."
Biden's trip to Ohio marks his ninth visit there this year and the 23rd trip to the state of his vice presidency. He will hold five campaign rallies over three days, including a joint appearance with President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
While Biden's events are attended almost entirely by supportive and high-interest voters, they've become a barometer of how the campaign's new campaign attacks are resonating with the Democratic base. In Florida last week, voters chanted "malarkey!" in recognition of the vice president's uncorking of a favorite Irish colloquialism at the Danville debate. In Ohio Monday, supporters shouted "Romnesia!" even before Biden mentioned the new Democratic label for Romney's alleged malleability.
