Joe Biden Tries to Channel Carnac the Magnificent.

By Rob Janicki

On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden showed up in Iowa to campaign for Democrat candidate Congressman Bruce Braley running against Republican candidate Joni Ernst for the Senate seat left open with the announced retirement of Democrat Senator Tom Harkin.  The race is extremely close with both Braley and Ernst leading, depending upon the poll of the day.

Biden, at the same time, seemed to be burnishing his chances and his image for the 2016

presidential race against the inevitable running of Hillary Clinton and, quite possibly, the entrance of Elizabeth Warren into the Democratic presidential primary.

The essence of Biden's comments were directed at the Tea Party, the same Tea Party that Democrats in the recent past said was essentially irrelevant.  Now Biden is using the Tea Party as a piñata to beat up on the Republican brand in order to stir the loyal voters of the Democrat Party to get out and vote.  That's the biggest concern of Democrats, low voter turn out, which is a death knell for Democrat chances to hold ground in next Tuesday's elections across America.

Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that keeping Democratic control of the chamber would “break the back of the hard right” and ease gridlock in Washington.

One can only imagine what was going through Biden's mind with that comment.  Exactly how Republicans would come to the table to work with Democrats, should the Democrats maintain a Senate majority, was not clear.   Actually, most political observers, if asked, would think the Republicans would be even more difficult to deal with.

If Braley wins and the Democrats maintain their majority, he said, the Republicans in Congress will be open to compromising with Democrats on issues such as raising the federal minimum wage.

“If that happens and it will, what’s going to happen is it’s going to break the back of the hard right,” he said. “You are going to see many reasonable people in the Republican Party start to vote reasonably again. Not exactly like we do. But they are going to be open to the kind of compromise that’s always allowed this nation to move forward.” Continue Reading Washington CBS Local

It's difficult to understand what passes for logic and critical thinking in Biden's comments, but, then again, that's nothing new.