Biden: GOP Strong Enough to Beat Obama in 2012

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says the Republican Party is more than strong enough to beat President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

"A significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction," Biden said. "That is never a good place to be going into reelection whether it’s your fault or not your fault. It’s almost sometimes irrelevant."

During an appearance Thursday at the Washington Ideas Forum, Biden was asked by NBC News host David Gregory if a significant majority of the American people don't believe the country is moving in the right direction. And he says that is never a good place to be going into re-election, regardless of whether it is the current administration's fault or not.

“Is it strong enough of a Republican Party for its nominee to beat this president?” Gregory asked.

“Oh absolutely, absolutely," Biden replied. "It’s strong enough to beat both of us. Look, look – no matter what the circumstance, at the end of the day, the American people right now are - many of them are in real trouble – an even larger percentage have stagnant wages and a significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction.

"That is never a good place to be going into reelection whether it’s your fault or not your fault. It’s almost sometimes irrelevant. … But what I’m counting on, I’m counting on, what I read out there, is the judgment of the American people to decide they know the hole we’re in, they know how far we’ve come out, they’re dissatisfied how fast we’re going, and they’re going to have to choose whether or not the path we have set the country on is the path that we should continue to go or we should go back to liberating the economy in the terms of…”