Biden: McCain 'more angry'

[October 17, 2008]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- John McCain, angry man?

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden calls McCain a longtime friend, but he said Thursday the Republican presidential candidate just isn't himself at this stage of the campaign.

"He seems a little more angry than he usually is," Biden told Jay Leno on NBC's "The Tonight Show," after Leno said McCain was making odd facial expressions during his debate Wednesday night with Democrat Barack Obama.

"John doesn't seem comfortable right now," Biden added.

"I don't think John is comfortable with the negative stuff in the advertising" being run by his campaign, Biden said at another point.

Biden, a Delaware senator, made a brief stop on Leno's stage in Burbank on his way to a fundraiser in Los Angeles. The two chatted about the economic crisis, the Iraq war and developments on the campaign trail as Nov. 4 closes in.

Biden has a reputation for verbal gaffes, and he assured Leno he'd be providing more fodder for late-night talk shows. Leno ribbed him about a slip-up at a rally in Ohio on Wednesday, when Biden referred to "a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S."

"I suspect I'll make a whole lot more," Biden said.

He credited Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin with driving up viewership of their debate, the second most-watched political matchup ever.

"I was a bit player in that debate," Biden concluded.

The 65-year-old Biden joked about his age, while poking at McCain, 72, who if elected would become the oldest first-term American president.

"The only guy older than me is John," he said.

Asked about Biden's claim that McCain seemed a bit cranky, McCain campaign spokesman Rick Gorka said, "John McCain is a fighter.

"People are hurting, they are upset and they want answers, and John McCain is the candidate that understands," Gorka said.

Biden later attended an outdoor fundraiser in Los Angeles attended by several hundred people, where tickets cost up to $5,000 and members of the band Maroon 5 entertained the crowd.

He urged supporters not to be lulled into complacency by polls showing Obama with an edge and warned of an onslaught of negative ads from their rivals that would come in the closing days of the campaign.

"This is no time for us to get cocky," said Biden, who was introduced by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "We cannot take anything for granted."

[Associated Press; By MICHAEL R. BLOOD]

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