Giuliani on Biden Gaffe: He's a 'Joke'

Joe Biden's "chains" gaffe rippled all the way to the Sunday talk show dial, Politico reports, with Rudy Giuliani backing off his earlier charge that the veep is "not that bright," but very much questioning whether he's got what it takes. "I don't think he's nuts," conceded Giuliani, but "I wonder if he's got the kind of balance" to be president. "This guy is like one gaffe after another, and he's a joke on late-night television. I think they've also locked him in his room for the rest of the campaign." Not so fast, countered Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, citing GOP talking points about "unshackling" the financial industry. Biden "was just taking that metaphor a step further," she said. "And the word he used, chains, is a distraction from a larger argument."

• And on the subject of poor choices of words, Cutter again: "Let's talk about Mitt Romney's: When he's been basically calling the president un-American, (saying) that the president wanted to make this a less Christian nation. That's what we find completely offensive. So this faux outrage by Mitt Romney complaining and whining about the tone of this race is really completely hypocritical."
• Rick Santorum on Obama 2012: "It's one thing to go out and attack Gov. Romney on his record, fair game, go for it. But to do what he’s doing as far as dividing this country, and it's class warfare at its worst." Further, Biden was just playing "the race card."
• Martin O'Malley on Romney: "Gov. Romney's just sort of a guy that you never want to play pick-up basketball with. He's always fouling, and he's always crying foul."
• Romney rep Eric Fehrnstrom on those pesky tax returns: "Mitt Romney has said he'll put out two years of tax returns. He put out his 2010 return—that’s on the website. He’ll put out his 2011 returns once it's complete and filed." And that's that. "Taxes are not an issue."

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)