Vice President Joe Biden, telling Politico why overconfident Republicans should stop counting their chickens* before they hatch:
Reports of our demise are premature. My grandfather used to always say, 'Joey, you have to have somebody to beat somebody.'
Biden's basic argument echoes the one made by David Plouffe last week: at this stage of the game, all the focus has been on Democrats, because Democrats are the ones running the government. Republicans have basically been irrelevant. But that is going to change this fall as the election approaches.
Right now, you've got Democrats versus the Democrats -- the most vulnerable place we can be. But once you start to put names and faces on the opposition, you're going to see this thing change.
And how will things change? Well, after Labor Day, Republicans will become relevant once again because the election is a choice between the Democratic vision of governance and the Republican vision of governance. As a result:
By the time people walk into the booth, they're going to have to choose between two people.
Biden's essential point: November won't be a referendum on whether or not the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have already fixed everything that Bush and the Republicans screwed up over the last eight years. Instead, it will be a choice between the Republicans who got us into the ditch and the Democrats who are trying to get us out.
*Note: Fortunately for Republicans, even if they do count their chickens before they hatch, they'll still be able to go to the doctor thanks to the Democratic passage of universal health care coverage. (Yes, even you, Sue Lowden!)