Biden lauds Obama as man of 'steel' in campaign push

US Vice President Joe Biden, throwing punches as a warrior for the middle class, plunged into the 2012 election race Thursday, hailing President Barack Obama as a man with "steel in his spine." With Republicans still haggling over their candidate for November's vote, Biden launched a new phase of the Democrats' campaign for Obama, with a fiery speech in the swing state of Ohio, which often decides US elections. His stem-winding speech came on the day when the campaign was to debut a documentary lionizing the president as a tough leader, who makes hard decisions, and on the eve of another big money campaign swing by Obama. Biden also praised Obama for rescuing US auto companies with an unpopular $80 billion bailout opposed by many Republicans, but which has nursed America's iconic industry back to health. And he slammed leading Republican candidate Mitt Romney for writing a 2008 New York Times article headlined "Let Detroit go bankrupt." "But the guy I work with, every day, the president, didn't flinch. This is a man with steel in his spine," Biden said, saying Obama rescued the American auto sector even though it was unpopular. "He wasn't going to give up on a million jobs, and the iconic industry America invented. At least he wasn't going to give it up without a fight. "He made the tough call, and the verdict is in, President Obama is right and they were dead wrong." Biden named all three remaining Republican candidates, Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum in his speech to auto union members, promoting himself and Obama as fighters for a middle class struggling in an economy weighted against them. "If you give any one of these guys the keys to the White House, they will bankrupt the middle class again," Biden said. "The president and I have a fundamental commitment to dealing the middle class back in to the American economy that they have been dealt out of so long. And ultimately that's what this election is all about. It's about a choice. "A choice between a system that is rigged and a system that is fair. "It's a stark choice. To my mind it's not even a close call." Biden, with an emotive stump style peppered with personal anecdotes appealing to blue collar voters, is seen as an effective advocate for Obama, and may connect with those sectors of the electorate that the president struggles to reach. The campaign's new intensity comes at a moment of sharp volatility in American politics, with Obama's approval rating lurching up and down in several polls, partly influenced by rising gasoline prices. Senior Obama administration officials dismissed a New York Times/CBS poll this week which put Obama's job approval rating at 41 percent, down from 50 percent a month ago. But they concede that Obama will face a tough fight in November, in a country that is split down the middle ideologically and believe the outcome could rest on the state of the economy. Obama's campaign will Thursday release the full version of the documentary about his first three years in power "The Road We've Traveled", narrated by Academy Award winning Hollywood star Tom Hanks, who endorsed him in 2008. Trailers of the movie show popular former president Bill Clinton praising Obama for ordering the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and administration figures lionizing the president for his economic policy.